nutria

noun

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nu·tria | \ ˈnü-trē-ə

, ˈnyü- \

Definition of nutria

1 : the durable usually light brown fur of a nutria

2 : a large South American semiaquatic rodent (Myocastor coypus) with webbed hind feet and a round nearly hairless tail that has been introduced into parts of Europe, Asia, and North America

Examples of nutria in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The nutria, named Parish, crawled out of her den at the zoo early Tuesday morning and did not see her shadow, her caretakers said. — Carlie Wells, NOLA.com, "Did nutria at Audubon Zoo see her shadow on Groundhog Day? Watch video," 2 Feb. 2021 Those nutria need to go, and hell, $6 a tail is pretty good, too. — Danny Hinton, Outdoor Life, "The 10 Best Stories of 2020, as Chosen by Our Loud-Mouthed Hunting Buddy," 29 Dec. 2020 State wildlife teams are at a critical juncture in their battle to keep the burrowing nutria from undermining roads, canals and water supplies at several spots in the Central Valley. — Kurtis Alexander, SFChronicle.com, "Nutria — they’re big, buck-toothed and chew up California wetlands. Now feds add money to the fight," 30 Oct. 2020 State officials are also embarking upon a Judas nutria project in which one animal is caught, sterilized and collared, then put back in the wild to lead biologists to the colony. — Kurtis Alexander, SFChronicle.com, "Nutria — they’re big, buck-toothed and chew up California wetlands. Now feds add money to the fight," 30 Oct. 2020 One of the causes of the area’s land erosion is due to the habits of nutria, a non-native swamp rat. — National Geographic, "Gordon Ramsay Thrives off the Louisiana Land and Waterways," 20 May 2020 Deputy editor Gerry Bethge hunted nutria with Lambert earlier this year and shed some light on just one of the many environmental challenges the marsh is facing. — Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, "Video: Meet the Duck Hunting Queen of Plaquemines Parish," 22 Apr. 2020 That includes all game animals, birds and furbearers, including bear, beaver, coyote, deer, opossum, rabbit, raccoon, squirrel, nutria, fox, mountain lion, groundhog, bobcat, Red Wolf, feral swine, and alligator. — Leada Gore | Lgore@al.com, al, "Game wardens put an end to Sand Mountain Sam, Alabama’s weather-predicting possum," 15 Jan. 2020 The company could get rid of more than 55,000 nutria each year. — Victoria Dodge, chicagotribune.com, "Invasive rodent destroying coast target of dog treat business," 17 Sep. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'nutria.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for nutria

borrowed from American Spanish, from Spanish, "otter," altered (with n of uncertain origin) from Latin lutra — more at otter

Note: Joan Coromines (Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 1981) suggests that Greek énydris "otter" may have been the source of the n in nutria; he notes dialectal forms such as lóndriga that maintain l.

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