Leopard

leopard

1. a large feline mammal, Panthera pardus, of forests of Africa and Asia, usually having a tawny yellow coat with black rosette-like spots

2. any of several similar felines, such as the snow leopard and cheetah

3. clouded leopard a feline, Neofelis nebulosa, of SE Asia and Indonesia with a yellowish-brown coat marked with darker spots and blotches

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

leopard

[′lep·ərd]

(vertebrate zoology)

Felis pardus. A species of wildcat in the family Felidae found in Africa and Asia; the coat is characteristically buff-colored with black spots.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

leopard

represents meanness, sin, and the devil. [Animal Symbolism: Mercatante, 56]

See: Cruelty

Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Leopard

Version 10.5 of the Mac OS X operating system, which runs on PowerPC and Intel-based Macs. Released in October 2007, Leopard includes many enhancements and new features, including Time Machine, an automated backup utility; Spaces, a way to organize applications in separate "virtual" desktops; and Spotlight, a search capability across the network. Boot Camp, which allows users to install Windows on Intel-based Macs, is included rather than being an option.

Numerous enhancements were made to the basic OS X architecture, and several security enhancements were added. For example, Leopard supports code signing, which verifies that executable applications are not tampered with. Address space randomization places code randomly in memory rather than in predetermined locations that hackers are expecting. See Snow Leopard, Mac OS X and Boot Camp.

Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Leopard

 

(Felis pardus), a predatory mammal of the family Felidae.

The maximum body length of the leopard is 160 cm. Males weigh up to 75 kg; females weigh somewhat less. The body is elongated and muscular, and the legs are relatively short. The fur is thick and fluffy. Leopards are yellow or red with black spots. Sometimes black (melanistic) leopards are found (in India).

Leopards are found in Africa (except in the Sahara), Southwest Asia, and southern Asia; in the USSR—in the Caucasus (very rarely), in the mountains of southwestern and southern Turkmenia, the southern part of Tadzhikstan, and Ussuriisk Krai. Leopards inhabit remote forests and mountains. They hunt mainly ungulates (goats, sheep, deer). Sometimes they pursue domestic animals (sheep, horses, and dogs) and also birds and rodents. In India there are leopards that on rare occasions attack humans.

The number of leopards is steadily decreasing in all areas. Their number decreased especially sharply in the 1950’s and 1960’s in Africa because of the fashion for leopard coats. The decrease in the number of leopards has led to a sharp increase in the number of baboons, which badly damage crops.

REFERENCE

Mlekopitaiushchie Sovetskogo Soiuza, vol. 2, part 2. (Forthcoming.)

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.