raposa

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese raposa, borrowed from Old Spanish raposa, from raposo + -a. Compare Portuguese and Spanish raposa.

• IPA^(key): /raˈposa/ [raˈpo.s̺ɐ]
• Rhymes: -osa
• Hyphenation: ra‧po‧so

raposa f (plural raposas, masculine raposo, masculine plural raposos)

1. vixen (animal)

• rraposa

Borrowed from Old Spanish raposa.

• IPA^(key): /raˈpoza/
• Rhymes: -oza
• Hyphenation: ra‧po‧sa

raposa f (plural raposas)

1. fox
   • 1439, X. Ferro Couselo, editor, A vida e a fala dos devanceiros, Vigo: Galaxia, page 420:

     da pelica da marta, hua branca, et da lontra, dous diñeiros, et da raposa, hun diñeiro

     a marten pelt, a branca [coin]; and of otter, two diñeiros; and of fox, a diñeiro

• Fala: raposa
• Galician: raposa
• Portuguese: raposa

• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “raposa”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2020–2026), “raposa”, in Vocabulário histórico-cronológico do português medieval [Historical and chronological vocabulary of Medieval Portuguese] (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa

• rabosa, rapossa, rraposa, rrapossa

From raposo +‎ -a.

• IPA^(key): /raˈpoza/
• Rhymes: -oza
• Hyphenation: ra‧po‧sa

raposa f (plural raposas)

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

• Spanish: raposa
• → Old Galician-Portuguese: raposa, rraposa
  • Fala: raposa
  • Galician: raposa
  • Portuguese: raposa

• Ralph Steele Boggs et al. (1946), “raposa”, in Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, volume II, Chapel Hill, page 426

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese raposa, from Old Spanish raposa.

• 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, dialectal) opossum (any American marsupial of the family Didelphidae)
4. (Brazil, dialectal, strictly) female opossum
5. (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 Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “raposa”, in Dicio – Dicionário Online de Português (in Portuguese), São Paulo: 7Graus, 2009–2026
• “raposa”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2026
• “raposa”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Inherited from Old Spanish raposa.

• 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 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025