Meanings
cuscus1
plural cuscuses
- Any arboreal marsupial of most genera of the family Phalangeridae, native to northern Australia, New Guinea, and Indonesia.
Without eggs, cocoa-nuts, or plantains, we had very short commons, and the boisterous weather being unpropitious for fishing, we had to live on what few eatable birds we could shoot, with an occasional cuscus, or eastern opossum, the only quadruped, except pigs, inhabiting the island.
1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 357
cuscus2
Synonyms & antonyms
nounvetiver
Origin
- Dutchkoeskoes
- New LatinCuscus
- Englishcuscus
From New Latin Cuscus, former genus name, ultimately (probably via French and Dutch koeskoes) from a local word for the marsupials in a language of the Moluccas.
More words from New Latin, Dutch
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish kuskus
- kuskusmarsupial
German Kuskus, Cuscus
- Kuskusmarsupial
- Cuscusmarsupial
Italian cusco
- cuscomarsupial
Polish kuskus
- kuskusmarsupial
Portuguese cusco
- cuscomarsupial
Russian куску́с
- куску́с (kuskús)marsupial
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with cuscus
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
cuscus. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cuscus
“cuscus.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cuscus. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cuscus,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cuscus.
Source: cuscus on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.