ferret

1. 1.

   musteline mammal of prairie regions of United States; nearly extinct

   Synonymsblack-footed ferretMustela nigripes

   Broadermusteline mammal

   Part ofMustela
2. 2.

   domesticated albino variety of the European polecat bred for hunting rats and rabbits

   Broaderpolecat

Other forms of ferret

plural

ferrets·

past tense

ferretted·

present participle

ferretting·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about ferret

What does ferret mean?

ferret means "hound or harry relentlessly". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in ferret?

ferret has 2 syllables: fer-ret. The stress falls on "fer". In IPA it is /ˈfɛɹət/.

What is another word for ferret?

Close synonyms include ferret out, black-footed ferret, Mustela nigripes. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is ferret a common word?

ferret is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.