Illustration of coati
1
: any of several tropical American mammals (genera Nasua and Nasuella) related to the raccoon but with a longer body and tail and a long flexible snout
2
Examples of coati in a Sentence
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Both two-toed and three-toed sloths (a family favorite) reside among the park’s dense greenery, while white-nosed coati forage its grounds for insects.
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Laura Kiniry, Condé Nast Traveler, 28 Jan. 2026
The 12 winning photographers took images of a coyote, a roadrunner with a California kingsnake, an Eastern collared lizard, an antelope squirrel, a pronghorn, a bluebird, a bison, a mule deer, a white-nosed coati, an elk and a turkey.
—Noël Fletcher, Forbes.com, 29 Dec. 2025
The video shows tiny coati along with larger ones running from one side of the road to the other, showing off their long tails and agile strides, rangers said.
—Paloma Chavez, Sacbee.com, 9 Sep. 2025
Susan Perry, an anthropologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study, described witnessing the animals torturing coati pups before eating them alive in Costa Rica.
—Elizabeth Landau, New York Times, 19 May 2025
The coati is a civet-like animal native to Central and South America and is related to the Asian civet.
—Joseph V Micallef, Forbes, 31 Dec. 2024
Sometimes a coati, a javelina or a roadrunner shows up in the parking lot.
—Brandon Loomis, The Arizona Republic, 20 May 2024
And here was the print of a coati.
—Guest, Discover Magazine, 16 June 2015
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Laura Kiniry, Condé Nast Traveler, 28 Jan. 2026
The 12 winning photographers took images of a coyote, a roadrunner with a California kingsnake, an Eastern collared lizard, an antelope squirrel, a pronghorn, a bluebird, a bison, a mule deer, a white-nosed coati, an elk and a turkey.
—Noël Fletcher, Forbes.com, 29 Dec. 2025
The video shows tiny coati along with larger ones running from one side of the road to the other, showing off their long tails and agile strides, rangers said.
—Paloma Chavez, Sacbee.com, 9 Sep. 2025
Susan Perry, an anthropologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study, described witnessing the animals torturing coati pups before eating them alive in Costa Rica.
—Elizabeth Landau, New York Times, 19 May 2025
The coati is a civet-like animal native to Central and South America and is related to the Asian civet.
—Joseph V Micallef, Forbes, 31 Dec. 2024
Sometimes a coati, a javelina or a roadrunner shows up in the parking lot.
—Brandon Loomis, The Arizona Republic, 20 May 2024
And here was the print of a coati.
—Guest, Discover Magazine, 16 June 2015
Cite this Entry
“Coati.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coati. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.
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