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chamois.

A short-horned goat antelope native to mountainous terrain in southern Europe; Rupicapra rupicapra.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈʃæmwɑː/Received-Pronunciation, singular/ˈʃæmwɑːz/plural/ʃæmˈwɑ/US, singular/ʃæmˈwɑ(z)/plural
  1. A short-horned goat antelope native to mountainous terrain in southern Europe; Rupicapra rupicapra.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Ellipsis of chamois leather (“soft pliable leather originally made from the skin of chamois (nowadays the hides of deer, sheep, and other species of goat are alternatively used)”).

    abbreviation · alt-of · countable · ellipsis · uncountable
  3. The traditional colour of chamois leather.

    countable · uncountable
  4. An absorbent cloth used for cleaning and polishing, formerly made of chamois leather.

    countable · uncountable
  5. A padded insert which protects the groin from the bicycle saddle.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle French chamois, from Late Latin camox, from Gaulish camox (5th c. AD, Polemius Silvius), probably from an extinct Alpine language (Raetic, Ancient Ligurian), possibly Proto-Indo-European *kem- (“without horns”). Compare also Old High German gamiza (“chamois”) (whence modern German Gämse).

adj/ˈʃæmwɑː/Received-Pronunciation, singular/ˈʃæmwɑːz/plural/ʃæmˈwɑ/US, singular/ʃæmˈwɑ(z)/plural
  1. Chamois-colored.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle French chamois, from Late Latin camox, from Gaulish camox (5th c. AD, Polemius Silvius), probably from an extinct Alpine language (Raetic, Ancient Ligurian), possibly Proto-Indo-European *kem- (“without horns”). Compare also Old High German gamiza (“chamois”) (whence modern German Gämse).

verb/ˈʃæmwɑː/Received-Pronunciation, singular/ˈʃæmwɑːz/plural/ʃæmˈwɑ/US, singular/ʃæmˈwɑ(z)/plural
  1. To clean with a chamois leather cloth.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle French chamois, from Late Latin camox, from Gaulish camox (5th c. AD, Polemius Silvius), probably from an extinct Alpine language (Raetic, Ancient Ligurian), possibly Proto-Indo-European *kem- (“without horns”). Compare also Old High German gamiza (“chamois”) (whence modern German Gämse).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.