quagga

noun

quag·​ga ˈkwa-gə  ˈkwä- 

plural quaggas

1

: an extinct zebra (Equus quagga quagga) of southern Africa that had brown and white stripes chiefly on the head and neck, reddish-brown to brown upper parts, and whitish belly, tail, and legs

The last living quagga died at the Amsterdam Zoo in 1883 …

—Donald G. McNeil Jr.

The quagga, a subspecies of zebra, was once common in South Africa, but European settlers hunted them to the extreme for the meat and fur.

—Elana Glowatz

2

: quagga mussel

Native to Ukraine, the quagga now infests the [Great] lakes in even greater numbers than its invasive-species cousin the zebra mussel.

—Bill McGraw

Examples of quagga in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Most of the invasive mussels in Lake Michigan are quagga, which do not need to anchor to a hard surface like zebras do. —Caitlin Looby, jsonline.com, 20 Jan. 2026

While this could never truly bring the quagga back, this project is still both a valiant and symbolic attempt to restore what once was. —Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025

Those inspection stations are intended to intercept another quagga outbreak before the mollusks even have a chance to enter Idaho waters. —Alex Music august 17, Idaho Statesman, 17 Aug. 2025

In 1984, researchers detected traces of mitochondrial DNA in the skin of a taxidermied quagga in a museum. —D. T. Max, New Yorker, 7 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

obsolete Afrikaans (now kwagga), from Khoikhoi quácha

First Known Use

1780, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing quagga

• quagga mussel