BLACK BEAR

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does black bear mean? 

• BLACK BEAR (noun)
  The noun BLACK BEAR has 2 senses:

1. bear with a black coat living in central and eastern Asia

2. brown to black North American bear; smaller and less ferocious than the brown bear

  Familiarity information: BLACK BEAR used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BLACK BEAR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Bear with a black coat living in central and eastern Asia

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

Asiatic black bear; black bear; Selenarctos thibetanus; Ursus thibetanus

Hypernyms ("black bear" is a kind of...):

bear (massive plantigrade carnivorous or omnivorous mammals with long shaggy coats and strong claws)

Holonyms ("black bear" is a member of...):

genus Selenarctos; Selenarctos (Asiatic black bears; in some classifications not a separate genus from Ursus)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Brown to black North American bear; smaller and less ferocious than the brown bear

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

American black bear; black bear; Euarctos americanus; Ursus americanus

Hypernyms ("black bear" is a kind of...):

bear (massive plantigrade carnivorous or omnivorous mammals with long shaggy coats and strong claws)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "black bear"):

cinnamon bear (reddish-brown color phase of the American black bear)

Holonyms ("black bear" is a member of...):

Euarctos; genus Euarctos (American black bears; in some classifications not a separate genus from Ursus)

 Context examples 

He was still cursing when a loud growling was heard, and a black bear came trotting towards them out of the forest.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Fly, my lady, fly! he screeched, and whizzed past them like bolt from bow; while close behind came lumbering a huge black bear, with red tongue lolling from his mouth, and a broken chain jangling behind him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He fished for salmon in a broad stream that emptied somewhere into the sea, and by this stream he killed a large black bear, blinded by the mosquitoes while likewise fishing, and raging through the forest helpless and terrible.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)