English Explanatory Dictionary

sparrow

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The house sparrow, Passer domesticus; a small bird with a short bill, and brown, white and gray feathers.
  2. A member of the family Passeridae, comprising small Old World songbirds.
  3. A member of the family Passerellidae (or Emberizidae, under classification systems that subsume the New World sparrows under Emberizidae), comprising small New World songbirds.
  4. Generically, any small, nondescript bird.
  5. A quick-witted, lively person.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

/ˈspæɹəʊ/ /ˈspæɹoʊ/ En-us-ne-sparrow.ogg /ˈspɛɹoʊ/ en-us-sparrow.ogg /ˈspaɾo/ /ˈspaɾou/

Word forms

sparrow sparrows

Etymology

From Middle English sparwe, sparowe, from Old English spearwa, from Proto-West Germanic *sparwō, from Proto-Germanic *sparwô, from Proto-Indo-European *spḗr (“sparrow”). Cognate with Dutch spreeuw (“starling”), Alemannic German Spar (“sparrow”), German Sperling (“sparrow”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål spurv (“sparrow”), Norwegian Nynorsk sporv (“sparrow”), Swedish sparv (“sparrow”), Breton frao (“crow”), Tocharian A ṣpārāñ, Ancient Greek ψάρ (psár, “starling”).

Synonyms

spadger spoggy spuggy

Derived words

olive sparrow sparrowcide sparrowdom sparrow dominoes sparrow-fart sparrow fart sparrow-grass sparrow grass sparrowgrass sparrow hawk sparrowhawk sparrowish sparrow-lark sparrowlark sparrowless sparrowlike sparrowling sparrow mumbling sparrow owl sparrow-proof sparrow shot sparrows' wedding sparrow-weaver sparrow weaver sparrowwort sparrowy Sparrow criterion Sparrow's resolution limit
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