zebra
n. countablen. a wild animal from Africa that looks like a horse with black and white stripes.
n. an African wild equid characterised by a distinctive coat of black and white stripes. In medical contexts, sometimes used to refer to a rare or exotic diagnosis.
We saw a zebra running across the grass.
The children were excited to see a zebra at the zoo during their school trip.
While the common horse and the zebra share a similar skeletal structure, the latter's unique striped pattern serves as a complex mechanism for temperature regulation and predator confusion.
First attested in 1600. Borrowed from Italian zebra, from Portuguese zebra, zebro (“zebra”), from Old Galician-Portuguese enzebro, ezebra, azebra (“wild ass”), from earlier cebrario (882), ezebrario (897), from Vulgar Latin *eciferus, from Latin equiferus (“wild horse”) (Pliny), from equus (“horse”) + ferus (“wild”). While the word was traditionally pronounced with a long vowel in the first syllable in standard English, during the twentieth century a vowel shift occurred in regions of England, with the shortening of the first vowel. This pronunciation is now used throughout the UK and most Commonwealth nations. The long-vowel pronunciation remains standard in Canadian and American English and is used in the UK only by some older, conservative RP speakers. (unlikely diagnosis): Originates in the advice often given to medical students, "when you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras". (referee): In reference to the black and white striped shirts they wear.
The plural form is typically 'zebras', though 'zebra' is occasionally used as a collective plural in hunting or scientific contexts.