Large, slender wild cats with spotted coats and non-retractable claws, built for extreme speed on land.
From Hindi 'chita' or Sanskrit 'chitraka' meaning 'spotted' or 'speckled,' borrowed into English around 1600 through trade with India. The word traveled through Persian and ultimately Sanskrit roots referring to the animal's distinctive spotted appearance.
Cheetahs are the only cats that can't roar—they chirp and hiss instead—and they're built so extremely for speed that they'll overheat and collapse after just 60 seconds of running at full speed, making them sprinters rather than marathon runners in the animal world.
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