adj
Meaning 1
That changes or modifies its color.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: not-comparable
Examples
- The wall was covered with a chameleon paint.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
chameleon
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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kəmē'lēən
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kəmēl'yən
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/kəˈmi.li.ən/
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/kəˈmil.jən/
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Pacific Northwest Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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CMU ARPABET: K AH0 M IY1 L IY0 AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
A small to mid-size reptile, of the family Chamaeleonidae, and one of the best known lizard families able to change color and project its long tongue.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A person with inconstant behavior; one able to quickly adjust to new circumstances.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: Zelig
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
A hypothetical scalar particle with a non-linear self-interaction, giving it an effective mass that depends on its environment: the presence of other fields.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: natural-sciences, physical-sciences, physics
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
lizard of Africa and Madagascar able to change skin color and having a projectile tongue
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: chamaeleon
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: lizard
Narrower terms: African chameleon, Chamaeleo chamaeleon, horned chameleon, Chamaeleo oweni
noun
Meaning 6
a faint constellation in the polar region of the southern hemisphere near Apus and Mensa
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: Chamaeleon
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: constellation
noun
Meaning 7
a changeable or inconstant person
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: person, individual, someone, somebody, mortal, soul
History
Etymology
From Middle English camelion, from Old French cameleon, from Latin chamaeleon, from Ancient Greek χαμαιλέων (khamailéōn), from χαμαί (khamaí, “on the earth, on the ground”) + λέων (léōn, “lion”); ultimately a calque from Akkadian 𒌨𒈤𒊭𒆠 (nēšu ša qaqqari, “chameleon, reptile”, literally “lion of the ground", "predator that crawls upon the ground”). The spelling was re-Latinized in the early 18th century. The physics sense was coined by Justin Khoury and Amanda Weltman in 2003 in a paper in Physical Review Letters.
Across languages
Translations
153 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Afrikaans: verkleurmannetjie — reptile
- Afrikaans: trapsuutjie — reptile
- Akkadian: 𒌨𒈤𒊭𒆠 (nēšu ša qaqqari) — reptile
- Albanian: kameleon — reptile
- Amharic: እስስት (ʾəssət) — reptile
- Arabic: حِرْبَاء (ḥirbāʔ) — reptile
- Arabic: حرباية (ḥirbāya) — reptile
- Arabic: تاتة (tāta) — reptile
- Arabic: بوة (buwwa) — reptile
- Aragonese: camalión — reptile
- Aramaic: זָקִיתָא (zaqita) — reptile
- Armenian: քամելեոն (kʻameleon) — reptile
- Armenian: գետնառյուծ (getnaṙyuc) — reptile
- Assamese: কোকলোঙা (kükolüṅa) — reptile
- Asturian: camaleón — reptile
- Old Awadhi: गिरगिट (giragiṭa) — reptile
- Azerbaijani: buqələmun — reptile
- Basque: kameleoi — reptile
- Belarusian: хамелео́н (xamjeljeón) — reptile
- Bemba: lufwíáññembâ — reptile
- Bengali: বহুরূপী (bohurupi) — reptile
- Bengali: গিরগিটি (girgiṭi) — reptile
- Breton: gwerlas — reptile
- Bulgarian: хамелео́н (hameleón) — reptile
- Burmese: ပုတ်သင်ညို (putsangnyui) — reptile
- Catalan: camaleó — reptile
- Central Atlas Tamazight: ⴽⴰⵛⵛⴰ (kacca) — reptile
- Central Atlas Tamazight: ⵜⴰⵜⴰ (tata) — reptile
- Central Atlas Tamazight: ⵜⴰⵢⵢⵓ (tayyu) — reptile
- Chamicuro: tsenemo — reptile
- Cherokee: ᎤᎵᏑᏫᏒ ᎠᏓᏁᏟᏴᏍᎩ ᏘᏲᎭᎵ (ulisuwisv adanetliyvsgi tiyohali) — reptile
- Cherokee: ᎧᎻᎵᎣᏂ (kamilioni) — reptile
- Chinese Mandarin: 變色龍 /变色龙 (biànsèlóng) — reptile
- Chinese Mandarin: 變色蜥蜴 /变色蜥蜴 (biànsè xīyì) — reptile
- Chinese Mandarin: 避役 (bìyì) — reptile
- Czech: chameleon — reptile
- Czech: chameleón — reptile
- Danish: kamæleon — reptile
- Dutch: kameleon — reptile
- Esperanto: ĥameleono — reptile
- Estonian: kameeleon — reptile
- Faroese: kamelón — reptile
- Finnish: kameleontti — reptile
- French: caméléon — reptile
- Galician: camaleón — reptile
- Georgian: ქამელეონი (kameleoni) — reptile
- German: Chamäleon — reptile
- Greek: χαμαιλέων (chamailéon) — reptile
- Ancient Greek: χαμαιλέων (khamailéōn) — reptile
- Gujarati: કાચંડો (kācaṇḍo) — reptile
- Hebrew: זִקִּית — reptile
- Hebrew: זיקית (ziqit) — reptile
- Hindi: गिरगिट (girgiṭ) — reptile
- Hungarian: kaméleon — reptile
- Icelandic: kameljón — reptile
- Icelandic: kamelljón — reptile
- Ido: kameleono — reptile
- Indonesian: bunglon — reptile
- Inuktitut: ᑲᒦᓕᐊᓂ (kamiiliani) — reptile
- Italian: camaleonte — reptile
- Japanese: カメレオン (kamereon) — reptile
- Kannada: ಗೋಸುಂಬೆ (gōsumbe) — reptile
- Kannada: ಓತೀಕಾಟ (ōtīkāṭa) — reptile
- Kannada: ಊಸರವಳ್ಳಿ (ūsaravaḷḷi) — reptile
- Kazakh: құбылғы (qūbylğy) — reptile
- Kikuyu: kĩĩmbu — reptile
- Kikuyu: mũriyũ — reptile
- Korean: 카멜레온 (kamelle'on) — reptile
- Kyrgyz: хамелеон (hameleon) — reptile
- Latvian: hameleons — reptile
- Lithuanian: chameleonas — reptile
- Macedonian: камелеон (kameleon) — reptile
- Malagasy: tana — reptile
- Malagasy: tandrondro — reptile
- Malagasy: tarondro — reptile
- Malay: sesumpah — reptile
- Malay: sumpah-sumpah — reptile
- Malay: kameleon — reptile
- Malayalam: ഓന്ത് (ōntŭ) — reptile
- Maltese: kamaleont — reptile
- Manx: kameelyan — reptile
- Māori: kamiriona — reptile
- Mauritian Creole: kamaleon — reptile
- Mon: ဟကုဲ — reptile
- Mongolian: хамелеон (xameleon) — reptile
- Nahuatl: tepaxin — reptile
- Navajo: naʼashǫ́ʼii łahgo aníʼdoolníiłii — reptile
- Northern Sotho: leôbu — reptile
- Norwegian Bokmål: kameleon — reptile
- Norwegian Nynorsk: kameleon — reptile
- Occitan: camaleon — reptile
- Odia: ଏଣ୍ଡୁଅ (eṇḍua) — reptile
- Pali: kakaṇṭaka — reptile
- Mon: ကကဏ္ဍက (kakaṇḍaka) — reptile
- Persian: آفتابپرست (âftâb-parast) — reptile
- Persian: خربا (xorbâ) — reptile
- Polish: kameleon — reptile
- Portuguese: camaleão — reptile
- Punjabi: ਗਿਰਗਿਟ (girgiṭ) — reptile
- Romanian: cameleon — reptile
- Russian: хамелео́н (xameleón) — reptile
- Serbo-Croatian: камелеон — reptile
- Serbo-Croatian: kameleon — reptile
- Shona: rwavhi — reptile
- Slovak: chameleón — reptile
- Slovene: kameleon — reptile
- Spanish: camaleón — reptile
- Sundanese: londok — reptile
- Swahili: kinyonga — reptile
- Swahili: lumbwi — reptile
- Swahili: kigeugeu — reptile
- Swazi: lú-nwabú — reptile
- Swedish: kameleont — reptile
- Tagalog: hunyango — reptile
- Tajik: офтобгардон (oftobgardon) — reptile
- Tamil: பச்சோந்தி (paccōnti) — reptile
- Tashelhit: tayyu — reptile
- Tashelhit: cacxt — reptile
- Tashelhit: tata — reptile
- Tashelhit: kacca — reptile
- Tashelhit: aka — reptile
- Tatar: хамелеон (xameleon) — reptile
- Telugu: తొండ (toṇḍa) — reptile
- Telugu: ఊసరవెల్లి (ūsaravelli) — reptile
- Ternate: bakebake — reptile
- Thai: คาเมเลี่ยน (kaa-mee-lîian) — reptile
- Turkish: bukalemun — reptile
- Ukrainian: хамелео́н (xameleón) — reptile
- Uzbek: xameleon — reptile
- Uzbek: buqalamun — reptile
- Vietnamese: tắc kè hoa — reptile
- Vietnamese: tắc kè bông — reptile
- Walloon: cameleyon — reptile
- Welsh: madfall symudliw — reptile
- Wolof: kàkkatar — reptile
- Afrikaans: verkleurmannetjie — person with inconstant behavior
- Catalan: camaleó — person with inconstant behavior
- Chinese Mandarin: 變色龍 /变色龙 (biànsèlóng) — person with inconstant behavior
- Dutch: kameleon — person with inconstant behavior
- Greek: χαμαιλέων (chamailéon) — person with inconstant behavior
- Italian: camaleonte — person with inconstant behavior
- Japanese: 気分屋 (kibun'ya) — person with inconstant behavior
- Kazakh: құбылмалы адам (qūbylmaly adam) — person with inconstant behavior
- Kazakh: тұрақсыз адам (tūraqsyz adam) — person with inconstant behavior
- Malayalam: ഓന്ത് (ōntŭ) — person with inconstant behavior
- Persian: بوقلمون (buqalmun) — person with inconstant behavior
- Portuguese: camaleão — person with inconstant behavior
- Romanian: cameleon — person with inconstant behavior
- Spanish: camaleón — person with inconstant behavior
- Tatar: монафикъ (monafiq) — person with inconstant behavior
- Tatar: икейөзле (ikeyözle) — person with inconstant behavior
- Tatar: хамелеон (xameleon) — person with inconstant behavior
- Turkish: bukalemun — person with inconstant behavior
Real reading context