The African palm civet (Nandinia binotata) is genetically distinct and belongs in its own monotypic family, Nandiniidae.

The Malagasy civet (Fossa fossana) belongs to a separate family Eupleridae, with other carnivorans of Madagascar.

[2] Civets are also called toddy cats in English, marapaṭṭi (മരപട്ടി) in Malayalam, musang in Malay, Filipino, and Indonesian, and urulǣvā (උරුලෑවා) in Sinhalese.

[citation needed] There can be confusion among speakers of Malay because the indigenous word musang has been mistakenly applied to foxes by printed media instead of rubah, which is the correct but lesser-known term.

[3] However, in more common usage in English, the name also covers the civets of the viverrid genera Chrotogale, Cynogale, Diplogale, Hemigalus, Arctogalidia, Macrogalidia, Paguma and Paradoxurus.

[citation needed] In Kerala, the Malayalam speaking areas of India, the small Indian civet (Viverricula indica) is called "veruk" (വെരുക്‌).

Civets have a broadly cat-like general appearance, though the muzzle is extended and often pointed, rather like that of an otter, mongoose or even possibly a ferret.

Between these ethical concerns and the availability of synthetic substitutes, the practice of raising civets for musk is dying out.

[4] Viverrids are native to sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, the Iberian Peninsula, southern China, South and Southeast Asia.

As human habitats have increased and expanded, civets have preyed on livestock and smaller domesticated animals, such as fowls, ducks, rabbits, and cats.

Kopi luwak, called cà phê cứt chồn in Vietnam and Tagalog: kape alamid in the Philippines) is coffee that is prepared using coffee cherries that have been eaten and partly digested by the Asian palm civet and then harvested from its fecal matter.

[15] In As You Like It, Act II, scene 2 (William Shakespeare, 1599), the civet cat is mentioned as the "uncleanly" source of courtiers' perfumes.