Illustration of bird
- 1 crest
- 2 crown
- 3 bill
- 4 throat
- 5 auricular region
- 6 breast
- 7 scapulars
- 8 abdomen
- 9 tarsus
- 10 upper wing coverts
- 11 primaries
- 12 secondaries
- 13 rectrix
- 14 tail
often attributive
1
archaic
: the young of a feathered vertebrate
2
: any of a class (Aves) of warm-blooded vertebrates distinguished by having the body more or less completely covered with feathers and the forelimbs modified as wings
3
: a game bird
4
6
7
chiefly British
a
: a hissing or jeering sound expressive of disapproval
b
: dismissal from employment
8
: a thin piece of meat rolled up with stuffing and cooked
9
: a man-made object (such as an aircraft, rocket, or satellite) that resembles a bird especially by flying or being aloft
10
: an obscene gesture of contempt made by pointing the middle finger upward while keeping the other fingers down
—usually used with the
called also finger
11
Examples of bird in a Sentence
Noun
A large bird flew overhead.
The birds were singing outside our window.
He's a tough old bird.
We met some smashing birds at the pub last night.
Recent Examples on the Web
Quanta Magazine, 27 Oct. 2025
And on a barge with 30 elephants on the bank and the sun setting and birds flying over and hippos in the water.
—Daniela Avila, PEOPLE, 27 Oct. 2025
NPR, 17 Oct. 2025
Go birding at River Commons Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will host a morning of bird watching Wednesday at River Commons, a 100-acre tract administered by the Watershed Conservation Resource Center.
—Arkansas Online, 14 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for bird
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Noun
To be certain, more research is needed in other animal groups — including terrestrial animals, which can have complex external geometries such as feathers and hair, and warm-blooded, or endothermic, animals such as mammals and birds.
—Quanta Magazine, 27 Oct. 2025
And on a barge with 30 elephants on the bank and the sun setting and birds flying over and hippos in the water.
—Daniela Avila, PEOPLE, 27 Oct. 2025
Verb
Attendees included people from birding groups, government agencies, architecture firms, research universities, and dark sky groups that want to minimize artificial light.
—NPR, 17 Oct. 2025
Go birding at River Commons Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will host a morning of bird watching Wednesday at River Commons, a 100-acre tract administered by the Watershed Conservation Resource Center.
—Arkansas Online, 14 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for bird
Cite this Entry
“Bird.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bird. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
bird
1 of 2 noun1
: any of a class of warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrate animals with the body covered with feathers and the forelimbs modified as wings
2
: individual sense 2, fellow
especially
: a peculiar person
bird
2 of 2 verb
: to observe or identify wild birds in their natural environment
birder
noun
Biographical Definition
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