zebra

noun

• Any of three species of subgenus Hippotigris: E. grevyi, E. quagga, or E. zebra, all with black and white stripes and native to Africa.
• (sports, slang) A referee.
• (medicine, slang) An unlikely diagnosis, especially for symptoms probably caused by a common ailment. (Originates in the advice often given to medical students: "when you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras".)
• (medicine, by extension) Someone who has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome or hypermobility spectrum disorder
• (vulgar, derogatory, slang, ethnic slur) A biracial person, specifically one born to a Sub-Saharan African person and a white person.
• (informal) A fish, the zebra cichlid.
• Any of various papilionid butterflies of the subgenus Paranticopsis of the genus Graphium, having black and white markings.
• A zebra crossing.
• (World War II era, joint US/RAF) radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter Z.