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whippoorwill

whip·poor·will
W w

Transcription

    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • UK Pronunciation
    • UK IPA
    • [hwip-er-wil, wip-; hwip-er-wil, wip-]
    • /ˈʰwɪp ərˌwɪl, ˈwɪp-; ˌʰwɪp ərˈwɪl, ˌwɪp-/
    • /ˈwɪ.pə.wɪl/
    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • [hwip-er-wil, wip-; hwip-er-wil, wip-]
    • /ˈʰwɪp ərˌwɪl, ˈwɪp-; ˌʰwɪp ərˈwɪl, ˌwɪp-/

Definitions of whippoorwill word

  • noun whippoorwill a nocturnal North American nightjar, Caprimulgus vociferus, having a variegated plumage of gray, black, white, and tawny. 1
  • noun whippoorwill A North and Central American nightjar with a distinctive call. 1
  • countable noun whippoorwill A whippoorwill is a North American bird that is active at night and has a call that sounds like 'whip poor will'. 0
  • noun whippoorwill a nightjar, Caprimulgus vociferus, of North and Central America, having a dark plumage with white patches on the tail 0
  • noun whippoorwill a dark, insect-eating, nocturnal nightjar (Caprimulgus vociferus) of E North America 0
  • noun whippoorwill a nocturnal insectivorous bird of North America, Caprimulgus vociferus, a type of nightjar, named after its characteristic call. 0

Information block about the term

Origin of whippoorwill

First appearance:

before 1700
One of the 50% oldest English words
An Americanism dating back to 1700-10; imitative

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Whippoorwill

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation

whippoorwill popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 39% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.
This word is included in each student's vocabulary. Most likely there is at least one movie with this word in the title.

whippoorwill usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

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See also

Matching words

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