Standard Lemma guide

marsupial

adj · noun · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /mɑːˈsuː.pi.əl/
  • US: /mɑɹˈsu.pi.əl/
  • Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: M AA0 R S UW1 P IY0 AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Of or pertaining to a marsupial.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Of or relating to a marsupium.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: anatomy, medicine, sciences

Examples

  • the marsupial bones

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A mammal of the infraclass Marsupialia, including those where the female has a pouch in which it rears the young through early infancy, such as kangaroos, koalas, wombats and opossums, as well as the pouchless shrew opossums.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adjective

Meaning 4

of or relating to the marsupials

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • marsupial animals

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

mammals of which the females have a pouch (the marsupium) containing the teats where the young are fed and carried

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: pouched mammal

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: metatherian

Narrower terms: opossum, possum, opossum rat, bandicoot, kangaroo, phalanger, wombat, dasyurid marsupial, dasyurid, pouched mole, marsupial mole, Notoryctus typhlops

History

Etymology

From Latin marsupium, marsuppium (“pouch, purse”), from Ancient Greek μαρσύπιον (marsúpion) or μαρσύππιον (marsúppion), variants of μαρσίππιον (marsíppion), diminutive of μάρσιππος (mársippos, “bag, pouch”); with English -al.

Across languages

Translations

80 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: buidel — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Asturian: marsupial — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Belarusian: су́мчаты (súmčaty) — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Belarusian: то́рбачкавы (tórbačkavy) — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Bulgarian: двуутробен (dvuutroben) — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Catalan: marsupial — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Galician: marsupial — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Georgian: ჩანთოსნური (čantosnuri) — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Icelandic: pokadýr — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Italian: marsupiale — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Kazakh: қалталы (qaltaly) — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Latin: marsupialis — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Macedonian: торбарски (torbarski) — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Malay: marsupial — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Portuguese: marsupial — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Romanian: marsupial — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Russian: су́мчатый (súmčatyj) — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Serbo-Croatian: торбарски — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Serbo-Croatian: torbarski — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Spanish: marsupial — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Ukrainian: су́мчастий (súmčastyj) — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Welsh: bolgodog — of or pertaining to a marsupial
  • Afrikaans: buideldier — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Arabic: جِرَابِيّ (jirābiyy) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Arabic: جِرَاب (jirāb) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Armenian: պարկավոր (parkavor) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Asturian: marsupial — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Belarusian: су́мчаты (súmčaty) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Belarusian: то́рбачкавы (tórbačkavy) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Catalan: marsupial — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Cherokee: ᎹᏑᏈᏯᎵ (masuquiyali) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Chinese Mandarin: 有袋動物 /有袋动物 (yǒudài dòngwù) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Chinese Mandarin: 有袋類 /有袋类 (yǒudàilèi) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Czech: vačnatec — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Danish: pungdyr — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Dutch: buideldier — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Esperanto: marsupiulo — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Faroese: pungdýr — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Finnish: pussieläin — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • French: marsupial — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Galician: marsupial — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Georgian: ჩანთოსანი (čantosani) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • German: Beuteltier — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Hebrew: חיית כיס — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Hungarian: erszényes — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Icelandic: pokadýr — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Ido: marsupialo — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Italian: marsupiale — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Japanese: 有袋類 (yūtairui) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Japanese: 有袋動物 (yūtai-dōbutsu) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Kazakh: қалталы (qaltaly) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Korean: 육아 낭이 (yuga nang'i) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Korean: 유대류 (yudaeryu) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Latin: marsupial — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Lithuanian: sterblinis — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Macedonian: торбар (torbar) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Malay: marsupial — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Malay: binatang marsupial — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Malay: haiwan marsupial — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Mongolian: уутат амьтан (uutat amʹtan) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Navajo: bizaʼazis hólónígíí — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Norwegian Bokmål: pungdyr — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: pungdyr — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Plautdietsch: Biedeltia — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Polish: torbacz — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Portuguese: marsupial — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Romanian: marsupial — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Russian: су́мчатый (súmčatyj) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Serbo-Croatian: торбар — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Serbo-Croatian: torbar — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Serbo-Croatian: тоболчар — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Serbo-Croatian: tobolčar — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Slovene: vrečar — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Spanish: marsupial — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Spanish: didelfo — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Swedish: pungdjur — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Turkish: keseli hayvan — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Ukrainian: су́мчастий (súmčastyj) — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Vietnamese: thú có túi — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
  • Welsh: bolgodog — mammal of which the female typically has a pouch
Real reading context

marsupial in complete knowledge articles