cobra

See also: Cobra, COBRA, cobrá, cobrà, and cobră

English

Egyptian cobra (Naja haje)

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese cobra, from Latin colubra (“female snake”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkəʊbɹə/, /ˈkɒbɹə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkoʊbɹə/
• Rhymes: -əʊbɹə, -ɒbɹə, -oʊbɹə

Noun

cobra (plural cobras)

1. Any of various venomous snakes of the genus Naja.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     In the pools, too, was a species of small alligator or enormous iguana, I do not know which, that fed, Billali told me, upon the waterfowl, also large quantities of a hideous black water-snake, of which the bite is very dangerous, though not, I gathered, so deadly as a cobra's or a puff adder's.

2. A type of lanyard knot, thought to resemble a snake in its shape.

Hyponyms

• Asian cobra, Indian cobra, spectacled cobra
• Cape cobra, yellow cobra
• cobra capella, cobra de capello
• Egyptian cobra
• Equatorial spitting cobra
• king cobra
• monocled cobra
• Philippine cobra
• Pugachev's Cobra
• snake-eating cobra
• snouted cobra
• spitting cobra

Derived terms

• cobra chicken
• cobra effect
• cobralike
• cobra lily
• cobra maneuver
• cobra pose
• cobra roll
• cobratoxin
• cobric

Translations

venomous snake

• Arabic: كُوبْرَا f (kubrā), كُوبْرَا f (kūbrā), بَزَّاقَة ? (bazzāqa)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Assamese: ফেঁটী সাপ (phẽti xap)
• Atayal: kbibing
• Azerbaijani: gözlüklü ilan
• Belarusian: ко́бра f (kóbra)
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: ко́бра (bg) f (kóbra)
• Burmese: မြွေဟောက် (my) (mrwehauk)
• Catalan: cobra (ca) f
• Cherokee: ᏆᎾᏓᏲᎭ (quanadayoha)
• Cheyenne: a'kêstséašé'šenovôtse
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 眼鏡蛇 / 眼镜蛇 (zh) (yǎnjìngshé)

• Czech: kobra (cs) f
• Danish: kobra c
• Dutch: cobra (nl) f, brilslang (nl) f
• Egyptian: (ḏt)
• Esperanto: kobro
• Finnish: kobra (fi), silmälasikäärme (fi)
• French: naja (fr) m, cobra (fr) m
• Galician: cobra (gl) f
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Kobra (de) f
• Greek: κόμπρα (el) f (kómpra)
• Hebrew: פֶּתֶן m (peṯen)
• Hindi: कोबरा ? (kobrā), भुजंग (hi) m (bhujaṅg), काला (hi) m (kālā) (colloquial)
• Hungarian: kobra (hu)
• Ido: kobro (io)
• Indonesian: kobra (id), tedung (id)
• Irish: cobra m
• Italian: cobra (it) m
• Japanese: コブラ (ja) (kobura), 眼鏡蛇 (ja) (meganehebi)
• Khmer: ពស់វែក (pŭəhvɛɛk)
• Korean: 코브라 (ko) (kobeura)
• Malay: tedung
• Malayalam: മൂർഖൻ (ml) (mūṟkhaṉ)
• Maori: kaupara
• Marathi: भुजंग m (bhujaṅga), नाग m (nāg), नागोबा m (nāgobā)
• Mon: ဇြုံဇာတ် (mnw)
• Mongolian: наж могой (naž mogoj)
• Navajo: tłʼiish bikʼós niteelígíí
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kobra m

  Nynorsk: kobra m

• Pali: kaṇhagotamaka m, nāga m, ^{(please verify)} ahivisa n
• Polish: kobra (pl) f
• Portuguese: cobra-capelo (pt) f, naja (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਨਾਗ m (nāg)
• Rohingya: zouñraáff
• Romanian: cobră (ro) f, cobra f
• Russian: ко́бра (ru) f (kóbra)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ко̏бра f

  Roman: kȍbra (sh) f

• Slovak: kobra f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: kobra f

• Spanish: cobra (es) f
• Swedish: kobra (sv) c, glasögonorm (sv) c
• Tagalog: ulupong
• Tamil: நாகம் (ta) (nākam), நாகப்பாம்பு (ta) (nākappāmpu)
• Telugu: నాగుపాము (te) (nāgupāmu)
• Thai: งูเห่า (th) (nguu hào)
• Turkish: kobra (tr), gözlüklü yılan (tr)
• Ukrainian: ко́бра (uk) f (kóbra)
• Vietnamese: rắn hổ mang (vi), hổ mang (vi)
• Welsh: cobra m or f
• Wolof: saamaan mi
• Yoruba: ejo ṣebe

Anagrams

• Barco, CORBA, Carbo, carbo, carbo-, carob, coarb

Catalan

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Portuguese cobra, from Latin colubra. Doublet of colobra.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈkɔ.βɾə], [ˈko.βɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈkɔ.bɾə], [ˈko.bɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈkɔ.bɾa], [ˈko.bɾa]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

Noun

cobra f (plural cobres)

1. cobra

Derived terms

• cobra d'ulleres
• cobra escopidora
• cobra reial

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈkɔ.βɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈkɔ.bɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈkɔ.bɾa]

Verb

cobra

1. inflection of cobrar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “cobra”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “cobra”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “cobra” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “cobra” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese cobra, from Old Galician-Portuguese coobra, from Latin colubra.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkoː.braː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: co‧bra

Noun

cobra f (plural cobra's, diminutive cobraatje n)

1. cobra (venomous snake from certain genera of the family Elapidae, especially of the genus Naja)
2. (especially) Indian cobra (Naja naja)

   Synonyms: brilslang, gewone cobra, Indiase cobra

Derived terms

• cobralelie
• gewone cobra
• Indiase cobra
• koningscobra

Descendants

• → Indonesian: kobra

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese cobra, from Latin colubra. Doublet of couleuvre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.bʁa/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

cobra m (plural cobras)

1. cobra (snake)

   Synonym: naja

Further reading

• “cobra”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Galician

Cobra rateira or cobregón (Montpellier snake), in SW Galicia

Etymology 1

From Old Galician-Portuguese coobra (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), from Vulgar Latin *colŏbra, altered from Classical Latin colubra, feminine counterpart to coluber (“snake”), of uncertain origin.

Alternative forms

• cóbrega, quiobra

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔβɾa̝/

Noun

cobra f (plural cobras)

1. snake

   Synonym: serpe

2. cobra

Etymology 2

From Old Galician-Portuguese cobra, from Latin copula.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔβɾa̝/

Noun

cobra f (plural cobras)

1. (historical) stanze

   Synonym: copla

2. (archaic) paragraph

Etymology 3

Verb

cobra

1. inflection of cobrar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

References

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “cobra”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “coobra”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “coobra”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “cobra”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “cobra”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “cobra”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Irish

Etymology

Borrowed from English cobra, from Portuguese cobra, from Latin colubra (“snake, serpent”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔbˠɾˠə/

Noun

cobra m (genitive singular cobra, nominative plural cobraí)

1. cobra

Declension

Declension of cobra (fourth declension)

bare forms singular plural nominative cobra cobraí vocative a chobra a chobraí genitive cobra cobraí dative cobra cobraí forms with the definite article singular plural nominative an cobra na cobraí genitive an chobra na gcobraí dative leis an gcobra don chobra leis na cobraí

Derived terms

• rí-chobra (“king cobra”)

Mutation

Mutated forms of cobra

radical	lenition	eclipsis
cobra	chobra	gcobra

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “cobra”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• “cobra”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2025
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959), “cobra”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese cobra, from Old Galician-Portuguese coobra, from Latin colubra, feminine of coluber (“snake, serpent”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.bra/
• Rhymes: -ɔbra
• Hyphenation: cò‧bra

Noun

cobra m (invariable)

1. cobra

Derived terms

• cobra dagli occhiali
• cobra egiziano
• cobralisina
• cobraterapia
• cobratossina

Further reading

• cobra in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• braco, cabro, cabrò, carbo-, corba

Old Galician-Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin cōpula.

Noun

cobra f (plural cobras)

1. estrofe
2. paragraph
   • 1405, Enrique Cal Pardo, editor, Colección diplomática medieval do arquivo da catedral de Mondoñedo, Santiago: Consello da Cultura Galega:

     vay todo escripto en hua cobra et man de papel et cosido con fio branco de linno et ennas juntas meu nome

     all written in a single paragraph in a hand of paper and sewn with white linen thread and on the joints my name

Further reading

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “cobra”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “cobra”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Universo Cantigas - "cobra"

Portuguese

cobra (Naja philippinensis)

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.bɾɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.bɾɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.bɾa/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.bɾɐ/ [ˈkɔ.βɾɐ]

• Rhymes: -ɔbɾɐ
• Hyphenation: co‧bra

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese coobra, from Vulgar Latin *colŏbra, altered from Classical Latin colubra, feminine counterpart to coluber (“snake”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Galician cobra and Spanish culebra.

Noun

cobra f (plural cobras)

1. snake; serpent (any reptile of the suborder Serpentes)

   Synonyms: serpente, ofídio

2. (strictly, prescriptive) cobra (any snake of the family Elapidae)

   Synonym: elapídeo

3. (figurative, derogatory) viper (malignant person)
4. (Portugal, figurative) lassitude
5. (Portugal, colloquial) rope used to tie horses
6. (Portugal, colloquial) drunkenness
7. (Brazil, figurative, derogatory) deceitful woman
8. (figuratively, slang, vulgar) penis, dick, cock, prick

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pénis

Usage notes

The gender of this Portuguese zoonym is always feminine: when the gender of the being itself must be specified, use “cobra-macho” for male, and “cobra-fêmea” for female. Here, macho is treated as an undeclinable noun and doesn't necessarily need to agree in gender with the referent, but would change to macha if so.

• Some biologists proscribe the use of cobra for all snakes, restricting its use to the family Elapidae as in English.

Derived terms

• a cobra vai fumar
• andar como cobra quando perde a peçonha
• banha da cobra
• cágado-pescoço-de-cobra
• cipó-de-cobra
• cipó-mata-cobras
• cobra criada
• cobra que não anda, não engole sapo
• cobra-capelo
• cobra-coral
• cobra-cuspidora
• cobra-d'água
• cobra-de-água-de-colar
• cobra-de-capelo
• cobra-de-escada
• cobra-de-vidro
• cobra-lisa-austríaca
• cobra-real
• cobrinha
• Deus não dá asas à cobra
• dizer cobras e lagartos
• engolir cobra
• ficar cobra
• matar a cobra e mostrar o pau
• ninho de cobra
• ser mais fácil uma cobra fumar do que
• ser mau como as cobras

Related terms

• cobreiro
• cobrejar
• cobrelo
• ofídico

Descendants

Descendants

• Guinea-Bissau Creole: kobra
• Indo-Portuguese: cóber
• Kabuverdianu: kóbra
• Korlai Creole Portuguese: kɔb
• Kristang: kobra
• Principense: kobo
• Sãotomense: koblo
• → Arabic: كُوبْرَا (kubrā), كُوبْرَا (kūbrā)
• → Belarusian: ко́бра (kóbra)
• → Bulgarian: ко́бра (kóbra)
• → Czech: kobra
• → Dutch: cobra
• → English: cobra
  • → Irish: cobra
  • → Japanese: コブラ (kobura)
  • → Korean: 코브라 (kobeura)
  • → Welsh: cobra
• → Esperanto: kobro
• → Finnish: kobra
• → German: Kobra
• → Greek: κόμπρα (kómpra)
• → Hindi: कोबरा (kobrā)
• → Hungarian: kobra
• → Ido: kobro
• → Italian: cobra
• → Lower Sorbian: kobra
• → Norwegian: kobra
• → Polish: kobra
• → Romanian: cobră
• → Russian: ко́бра (kóbra)
• → Serbo-Croatian: kȍbra
• → Slovak: kobra
• → Spanish: cobra
• → Swedish: kobra
• → Turkish: kobra
• → Ukrainian: ко́бра (kóbra)

Noun

cobra m or f by sense (plural cobras)

1. (Brazil, dated, colloquial) pro, expert

Adjective

cobra m or f (plural cobras)

1. (Brazil, dated, colloquial) pro, expert

Etymology 2

Noun

cobra f (plural cobras)

1. alternative form of copla

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

cobra

1. inflection of cobrar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “cobra”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
• “cobra”, in Dicio – Dicionário Online de Português (in Portuguese), São Paulo: 7Graus, 2009–2025
• “cobra”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “cobra”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025
• “cobra”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkobɾa/ [ˈko.β̞ɾa]
• Rhymes: -obɾa
• Syllabification: co‧bra

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Portuguese cobra, from Latin colubra (“snake”). Doublet of culebra.

Noun

cobra f (plural cobras)

1. cobra
2. the act of hacer la cobra
   • 2016 November 11, “El vídeo que desmonta la ‘cobra’ de Bisbal a Chenoa”, in El Español‎^[1], archived from the original on 22 June 2019:

Derived terms

• cobra india
• cobra real
• hacer la cobra

Related terms

• culebra

See also

• mordida
• reptil
• serpiente
• veneno

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

cobra

1. inflection of cobrar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “cobra”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

Welsh

Etymology

Borrowed from English cobra, from Portuguese cobra, from Latin colubra.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔbra/

Noun

cobra m or f by sense (plural cobraod)

1. cobra

Mutation

Mutated forms of cobra

radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
cobra	gobra	nghobra	chobra

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “cobra”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies