opossum
noun/əˈpɒsəm/
/əˈpɑːsəm/
(Australian English, New Zealand English or North American English, informal possum)
- a small American or Australian animal that lives in trees and carries its young in a pouch (= a pocket of skin on the front of the mother’s body)Topics Animalsc2Word Originearly 17th cent.: from Virginia Algonquian opassom, from op ‘white’ + assom ‘dog’.
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opossum