raposa

See raposo. Compare Portuguese raposa, Spanish raposa.

raposa f (plural raposas)

1. vixen (animal)

• raposo

Borrowed from Spanish raposa (“fox”), probably from rabo (“tail”), from Latin rāpum (“turnip”) + -ōsus, and influenced by descendants of rapiō (“snatch, grab”).

• rapôsa (pre-reform spelling)

• Rhymes: -ozɐ
• Hyphenation: ra‧po‧sa

raposa f (plural raposas)

1. fox (both the "true foxes" of the Old World and North America, and the "false foxes" of Latin America)
   • 2015, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, O Pequeno Príncipe, Pelekanos Books, →ISBN:

     – Os homens, disse a raposa, têm fuzis e caçam. É bem incômodo!

     “The men”, said the fox, “have rifles and they hunt. It’s quite bothersome!”

2. (specifically) vixen (female fox)
3. (Brazil, regional) opossum (any American marsupial of the family Didelphidae)
4. (usually derogatory) fox (a sly or cunning person)

Raposa is one of the few feminines that are used by default (when the referent’s sex is unknown or irrelevant).

• (fox): golpelha
• (opossum): gambá

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• Rhymes: -ɔzɐ
• Hyphenation: ra‧po‧sa

raposa

1. inflection of raposar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “raposa”, in Dicio – Dicionário Online de Português (in Portuguese), São Paulo: 7Graus, 2009–2025
• “raposa”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025

See raposo.

• IPA^(key): /raˈposa/ [raˈpo.sa]
• Rhymes: -osa
• Syllabification: ra‧po‧sa

raposa f (plural raposas)

1. female equivalent of raposo: vixen (female fox)

   Synonyms: zorra, vulpeja

• “raposo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024