What is the Latin word for crab?

The usual Latin words for “crab” are cancer, pagūrus, păgur. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

English → Latin

“crab” in Latin

cancera crab; a tumor, cancer; a lattice, grid, or barrier pagūrusA kind of crab.păgura fish

Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864

crab

A shell-fish, cancer, generally cancri; seldom canceris (Cat., R.R., Lucr., Arnob.): pagurus (πάφουρος, Plin., 9, 30, 51): pagur (a species of crab, Ov.).

A sign of the zodiac, cancer (e.g., sol cancri signum transit).

A peculiar sort of apple, malum silvestre.

An engine; the nearest words are capreoli (Caes. B.C., 2, 10): machina tractoria; tetraspastos, pentaspastos (according to the number of its rollers; Vid: Vitr., 3, 1, in., and 3, 2, 3).

A morose fellow; Vid: CRABBED.

Quick answer

What is the Latin word for crab?: The usual Latin words for “crab” are cancer, pagūrus, păgur. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.