American marsupial ... with or without its first letter (7)

I believe the answer is:

opossum

(Other definitions for opossum that I've seen before include "American and Australian marsupial, often with the first letter dropped" , "American native" , "American marsupial with prehensile tail" , "Small arboreal marsupial" , "American and Australian marsupial, often abbreviated" .)

I've seen this clue in the Universal.

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