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starling

UK/ˈstɑːlɪŋ/US/ˈstɑɹlɪŋ/
nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,927 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: starlings

A starling is a glossy speckled bird that flies in huge twisting flocks. A flock of starlings, starlings at dusk, the starling's whistle.

The evening flocks are called murmurations, and the shape comes from each bird tracking about seven neighbours rather than the whole group. They mimic other birds and machines. All the starlings in North America descend from birds released in New York in the 1890s.

Lamprotornis hildebrandti -Tanzania-8.jpg: Noel Feans derivative work: Snowmanradio · CC BY 2.0

Definitions of starling

  1. 1nounstarlingA glossy speckled bird that flocks in large numbers.B2+

    “A starling on the roof was copying the sound of a car alarm.”

starling is a bird.

Where it comes from

Old English staerling is staer, the bird's older name, plus the -ling ending.

  1. Old English

    stærling

  2. Middle English

    starling

  3. English, today

    starling

Built from

  • stær · Old English — starling

From Middle English starling, from Old English stærling. From Middle English starling, sterling, sterlinge, from Old English stærling, from stær (“starling”) + -ling. Cognate with Middle Dutch sterlinck (“starling”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Birds

Practise this word

starling in the wild

  • All members of the family Sturnidae, commonly called sturnids, are known collectively as starlings.

    Starling

  • The Sturnidae are named for the genus Sturnus, which in turn comes from the Latin word for starling, sturnus.

    Starling

  • Common starlings may also be a nuisance through the noise and mess caused by their large urban roosts.

    Common starling

  • The rosy starling (Pastor roseus), also known as the rose-coloured starling, is a passerine bird in the starling family Sturnidae.

    Rosy starling

  • The term cutwater is used for such a structure shaped with water flow in mind, as a pier or starling with a diamond point.

    Starling (structure)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.