koala

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a tree-dwelling Australian marsupial with thick grey fur, rounded ears, and a diet consisting mainly of eucalyptus leaves

   A koala slept in the fork of a eucalyptus tree during the hottest part of the day.

Borrowed from Dharug gula, the name for the animal in an Aboriginal language of the Sydney region, through early colonial spellings such as coola and koolah. The familiar phrase koala bear is zoologically inaccurate because the koala is a marsupial, not a bear.

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