ocelot

noun

1. a spotted leopardlike cat, Felis pardalis, ranging from Texas through South America: now greatly reduced in number and endangered in the U.S.

noun

1. a feline mammal, Felis pardalis, inhabiting the forests of Central and South America and having a dark-spotted buff-brown coat

n.“large wildcat of Central and South America,” 1775, from French ocelot, a word formed by French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788), from Nahuatl ocelotl “jaguar” (in full tlalocelotl, a compound formed with tlalli “field”).