coon

SayKOONUS/kun/UK/kuːn/

Pluralcoons

Verbcoons, cooning, cooned

11 meanings of coon

Practice

1
nouncolloquialUSCanadacountable
A raccoon.
The dog treed a coon down by the creek just before dawn.
Coons and possums raided the garbage behind the cabin all winter.
UsageOutside casual speech, raccoon is the safer word, since this short form can be heard as a racial slur.
Similarraccoon
Note
The clipping of raccoon is old and not confined to the South: Thoreau lists coons alongside minks, muskrats and foxes in Cape Cod (1865). In print it is sometimes written 'coon, the apostrophe marking the lost syllable, as in Sterling North's Rascal.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
Coon is a clipping of raccoon. en.wiktionary.org
The animal sense is old and historically occurs outside the South: Thoreau uses coons alongside minks, muskrats and foxes when describing Cape Cod. en.wikisource.org
Cape Cod's first-edition title page is dated 1865. en.wikisource.org
The apostrophe in 'coon marks the omitted beginning of raccoon. en.wikipedia.org
Sterling North's Rascal contains the spelling 'coon. en.wiktionary.org
2
racist insultnounslangderogatoryethnicoffensiveslurcountable
A highly offensive ethnic slur for a Black person.
UsageA word to recognize in reading, not to use; even in a quotation it needs a clear reason to appear.
Note
In Australia it has also been used against Aboriginal people, which is why Coon cheese was renamed Cheer in 2021. Its weight also falls on the rest of the word: because the same four letters name the raccoon and a handful of Southern country verbs, those harmless senses can be heard as the insult, whatever the speaker means.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
The word has been used as a slur against Aboriginal people in Australia. antidiscrimination.nsw.gov.au
Coon cheese was renamed Cheer in 2021. en.wikipedia.org
The name change responded to the word's racist associations. saputodairyaustralia.com.au
The same word names the raccoon. en.wiktionary.org
The word also has several Southern US verb senses. en.wiktionary.org
3
huntingverbdialectalSouthern USintransitive
To hunt raccoons.
4
nounderogatoryethnicoffensiveslurcountable
Used, especially by Black people, of a Black person seen as pandering to white people, playing up demeaning stereotypes, or betraying other Black people.
Note
The noun is close kin to the phrase play the coon, so it names a part being played as much as the person playing it. Contemporary Black American Cinema (2012) argues that the part comforts white audiences by showing Black people staying in the low place assigned to them. Said of a real person, the word is itself an insult.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
Contemporary Black American Cinema was first published in 2012. api.pageplace.de
The book argues that playing the coon reassures audiences that Black people remain in an assigned inferior social position; Wiktionary reproduces the supporting passage from page 123. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meanings

5
verboffensive
In African American usage, of a Black person: to act out the old stereotype of the Black fool for an audience, particularly one that includes white people.
UsageUsually met as cooning, in criticism of entertainers, sometimes alongside tomming.
Note
Donald Bogle's history of Black film, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks, names the coon among the stock types it traces.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Donald Bogle wrote Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks. bloomsbury.com
The book is a history of Black representation in film. bloomsbury.com
The book discusses the coon among the stereotypical character types it traces. jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu
6
nounderogatoryethnicoffensiveslurdialectalSouthern UScountable
Short for coonass, an offensive ethnic slur for a Cajun, a person of Acadian French descent in south Louisiana.
Note
The word shortens coonass here, and the target changes: a Cajun of south Louisiana. It is an ethnic slur in its own right, so the caution that governs the anti-Black slur applies here too.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
The target is a Cajun, a person of Acadian descent associated with southern Louisiana. en.wiktionary.org
Coon in its Cajun sense is an ethnic slur. en.wiktionary.org
7
noundatedUScountable
A sly, cunning fellow.
Note
A dated Americanism, it is met mainly in older writing, where it means a shrewd or slippery man. Said of anyone today, it will almost certainly be heard as the slur, whatever the speaker intends.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
The sense meaning a sly or shrewd man is a dated Americanism. en.wiktionary.org
8
stealverbdatedSouthern UStransitive
To steal.
As boys they would slip out after dark to coon watermelons from a neighbor's patch.
Tris and his gang loved to prowl around at night, “cooning melons,” as Speaker put it in a 1920 interview. By all accounts, young Master Speaker was a handful.
2006, Timothy M. Gay, Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend
Similarsteal, swipe, pinch
Note
The word lives mostly in remembered boyhood: cooning watermelons was a night raid on a neighbor's patch, and the phrase turns up in memoirs and biographies looking back on rural youth; the ballplayer Tris Speaker recalled "cooning melons" in a 1920 interview. It could take other loot too, horses among them, but the melon raid is the scene the word calls up.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
Cooning watermelons meant raiding someone else's melon patch at night. upload.wikimedia.org
Tris Speaker was a baseball player. simonandschuster.com
The stealing sense could also refer to horses. en.wiktionary.org
9
nouncolloquialSouth Africa
A member of one of the colorfully dressed dance troupes that perform in Cape Town during the New Year celebrations.
10
verbdialectalSouthern US
To crawl or shuffle along something narrow, such as a log over a creek or a rock ledge, often straddling it.
There is a little ledge low on the face of the cliff, and by this with careful “cooning” one may reach a recession in the rock which makes a lovely arm chair.
a. 1917, Roger Martin, “The Parson Goes A-Fishing”
11
verbdialectalGeorgia
To fish by noodling, feeling with the hands for large fish hidden in underwater holes.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of coon apart? Answer 2 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

A clipping of raccoon.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

Coon is a clipping of raccoon. en.wiktionary.org