1. a furry Australian animal with very short legs, a thick body, and strong claws o
1.nounB2
Definition
a furry Australian animal with very short legs, a thick body, and strong claws on its front feet, which uses its front paws to dig tunnels in the ground where it sleeps and hides from danger
Example
During their trip to Australia, Linh spotted a wombat at a wildlife sanctuary.
countable noun + prepositional phrase of location
A frightened wombat can run surprisingly fast despite its short, sturdy legs.
Theo read that a baby wombat stays inside its mother's pouch for about six months.
collocation: stay in mother's pouch
Ryo watched the wombat use its strong front claws to dig a fresh tunnel.
verb pattern: watch + noun + infinitive
The wildlife rescue team fed the orphaned wombat milk from a bottle every night.
Common collocations
dig a burrow
native to Australia
orphaned wombat
wombat pouch
wombat rescue
Grammar Patterns
countable noun
Synonym discussion
Sense: noun/1
While all three words describe mammals, a wombat is a specific type of marsupial native to Australia, whereas 'marsupial' is the broader category that includes kangaroos, koalas, and wombats. A koala is also an Australian marsupial, but unlike the ground-dwelling wombat, it lives in trees and eats eucalyptus leaves. A 'badger' is a burrowing mammal of similar size and shape to a wombat, but badgers belong to the weasel family (mustelids), are found across Europe, Asia, and North America, and are not marsupials — they do not carry their young in a pouch.
The word 'wombat' comes from the Dharug language, spoken by Aboriginal people in the Sydney region of Australia. European settlers borrowed the term in the late 18th century, first spelling it 'womback' before the modern spelling became standard.