Other forms: owls
An owl is a night bird with big round eyes that turns its head far around. A barn owl, an owl hooted, wise as an owl.
It can turn its head about two hundred and seventy degrees because its eyes cannot move in their sockets — they are tubes, not balls. Its flight is nearly silent, thanks to a fringed edge on the feathers. The reputation for wisdom is Greek, from Athena's bird, and owls are not especially clever.
1nounowlA night bird of prey with large round eyes.
“We heard an owl hooting in the woods at midnight.”
owl is a bird.
Old English ule names the bird and is imitative of its call. German Eule is the same word.
Middle English
oule
English, today
owl
Built from
From Middle English oule. From Middle English howle, oul, oule, owle, owlle, from Old English ūle, from Proto-West Germanic uwwulā, from Proto-Germanic uwwulǭ (“owl”), diminutive of uwwǭ (“eagle-owl”), of imitative origin or a variant of ūfaz, ūfǭ, from Proto-Indo-European up- (“to cry out”). 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA