/ ˈpænθə(r); NAmE / noun
1.
a black leopard (= a large wild animal of the cat family)
2.
( NAmE ) = puma
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WORD ORIGIN
Middle English : from Old French pantere , from Latin panthera , from Greek panthēr . In Latin , pardus leopard also existed; the two terms led to confusion: until the mid 19th cent. many taxonomists regarded the panther and the leopard as separate species.