Definition of paca in English:
paca
noun ˈpakə
A large nocturnal South American rodent that has a reddish-brown coat patterned with rows of white spots and is hunted for its meat.
兔豚鼠Genus Cuniculus, family Dasyproctidae: two species
- Eight other species, including pacas, pacaranas, spiny rats and porcupines, also steal Brazil nuts stored by agoutis.
- Agoutis are smaller than their relatives the piglike pacas and larger than squirrels, which they resemble.
- It is an unfortunate and potentially confusing accident of taxonomy that agoutis do not belong to the family Agoutidae, which instead contains their relatives, the pacas.
- We saw squirrel monkeys, capuchins, spider monkeys, peccaries, kinkajous, coatis, howler monkeys, tayras - a large mustelid that Martyn thought was a tree otter - pacas, night monkeys, giant anteaters and a tapir.
- What she finds stuffed into its pens and cages, or tethered nearby, is a fair representation of Nicaragua's jungle wildlife: scores of parrots and parakeets, pacas, an ocelot cub, deer yearlings, a spider monkey.
Origin
Mid 17th century: via Spanish and Portuguese from Tupi.
Rhymes
alpaca, attacker, backer, clacker, claqueur, Dhaka, hacker, Hakka, lacquer, maraca, packer, sifaka, slacker, smacker, stacker, tacker, tracker, whacker, yakka
Definition of paca in US English:
paca
noun
A nocturnal South American rodent that has a reddish-brown coat patterned with rows of white spots. It is hunted for its edible flesh.
兔豚鼠Genus Cuniculus, family Dasyproctidae: two species, in particular A. paca
Also called spotted cavy- Eight other species, including pacas, pacaranas, spiny rats and porcupines, also steal Brazil nuts stored by agoutis.
- Agoutis are smaller than their relatives the piglike pacas and larger than squirrels, which they resemble.
- We saw squirrel monkeys, capuchins, spider monkeys, peccaries, kinkajous, coatis, howler monkeys, tayras - a large mustelid that Martyn thought was a tree otter - pacas, night monkeys, giant anteaters and a tapir.
- It is an unfortunate and potentially confusing accident of taxonomy that agoutis do not belong to the family Agoutidae, which instead contains their relatives, the pacas.
- What she finds stuffed into its pens and cages, or tethered nearby, is a fair representation of Nicaragua's jungle wildlife: scores of parrots and parakeets, pacas, an ocelot cub, deer yearlings, a spider monkey.
Origin
Mid 17th century: via Spanish and Portuguese from Tupi.