Standard Lemma guide

hornbill

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈhɔːn.bɪl/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: /ˈhɔːɹn.bɪl/
  • CMU ARPABET: HH AO1 R N B IH2 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any of various birds of the family Bucerotidae, with bills resembling a cow's horns. Many species have a casque above the bill, and many imprison their young in a tree.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

bird of tropical Africa and Asia having a very large bill surmounted by a bony protuberance; related to kingfishers

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: coraciiform bird

History

Etymology

From horn + bill.

Across languages

Translations

32 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: boskraai — bird
  • Assamese: পাকৈঢোঁৰা (pakoidhü̃ra) — bird
  • Assamese: ধনেশ (dhonex) — bird
  • Bulgarian: пти́ца-носоро́г (ptíca-nosoróg) — bird
  • Catalan: calau — bird
  • Lautu Chin: vaka — bird
  • Chinese Mandarin: 犀鳥 /犀鸟 (xīniǎo) — bird
  • Danish: næsehornsfugl — bird
  • Dutch: neushoornvogel — bird
  • Esperanto: bucero — bird
  • Finnish: sarvinokka — bird
  • French: calao — bird
  • German: Nashornvogel — bird
  • Italian: bucero — bird
  • Japanese: サイチョウ (saichou) — bird
  • Korean: 코뿔새 (koppulsae) — bird
  • Lao: ແກງ (kǣng) — bird
  • Macedonian: клунорог (klunorog) — bird
  • Malay: enggang — bird
  • Brunei Malay: likap — bird
  • Pali: āṭa — bird
  • Pali: dabbimukha — bird
  • Pela: və̆31kjɔ̃55 — bird
  • Polish: dzioborożec — bird
  • Portuguese: calau — bird
  • Romanian: calao — bird
  • Russian: пти́ца-носоро́г (ptíca-nosoróg) — bird
  • Spanish: cálao — bird
  • Tagalog: kalaw — bird
  • Thai: นกเงือก (nók ngʉ̂ʉak) — bird
  • Vietnamese: hồng hoàng — bird
  • Welsh: cornbig — bird
Real reading context

hornbill in complete knowledge articles