Standard Lemma guide

shoebill

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.

  • /ˈʃu.bɪl/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Balaeniceps rex, a tall wading bird related to the stork, native to tropical African swamps; the sole species of the family Balaenicipitidae.

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

large stork-like bird of the valley of the White Nile with a broad bill suggesting a wooden shoe

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: shoebird, Balaeniceps rex

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: wading bird, wader

History

Etymology

From shoe + bill.

Across languages

Translations

56 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: skoenbekooievaar — wading bird
  • Albanian: lejleku sqepgjerë — wading bird
  • Arabic: أبو مركوب ('abu markub) — wading bird
  • Assamese: জোতাঠোঁটীয়া (zütathü̃tia) — wading bird
  • Asturian: picozapato — wading bird
  • Breton: beg-botez — wading bird
  • Bulgarian: китоглава чапла (kitoglava čapla) — wading bird
  • Catalan: bec d'esclop — wading bird
  • Chinese Mandarin: 鯨頭鸛 /鲸头鹳 (jīngtóuguàn) — wading bird
  • Czech: člunozobec africký — wading bird
  • Danish: træskonæb — wading bird
  • Dutch: schoenbekooievaar — wading bird
  • Esperanto: ŝubekulo — wading bird
  • Finnish: kenkänokka — wading bird
  • French: bec-en-sabot du Nil — wading bird
  • French: abu-markub — wading bird
  • Saterland Frisian: Schousnoabel — wading bird
  • Galician: peteiro zapato — wading bird
  • Georgian: ვეშაპთავა ყანჩა (vešaṗtava q̇anča) — wading bird
  • German: Schuhschnabel — wading bird
  • Greek: φαλαινοκέφαλος (falainokéfalos) — wading bird
  • Hebrew: מנעלן (min'alan) — wading bird
  • Hungarian: papucscsőrű madár — wading bird
  • Ingush: зIокармаьчи (zˀokarmäči) — wading bird
  • Irish: bróg-ghob — wading bird
  • Italian: becco a scarpa — wading bird
  • Japanese: 嘴広鸛 (hashibiro-kō) — wading bird
  • Kazakh: наханбасты (naxanbasty) — wading bird
  • Korean: 넓적부리황새 (neopjeokburihwangsae) — wading bird
  • Latvian: tupeļknābis — wading bird
  • Lithuanian: batasnapis — wading bird
  • Luganda: bbuulwe — wading bird
  • Malayalam: ഷൂബിൽ (ṣūbil) — wading bird
  • Navajo: chʼídeeldlóohiitsoh — wading bird
  • Norwegian Bokmål: treskonebb — wading bird
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: treskonebb — wading bird
  • Polish: trzewikodziób — wading bird
  • Portuguese: bico-de-tamanco — wading bird
  • Romanian: abumarkub — wading bird
  • Romanian: pasărea sabot — wading bird
  • Russian: китогла́в (kitogláv) — wading bird
  • Russian: короле́вская ца́пля (korolévskaja cáplja) — wading bird
  • Scots: shaebill — wading bird
  • Scottish Gaelic: corra bròg-ghobach — wading bird
  • Serbo-Croatian: рода ципеларка — wading bird
  • Serbo-Croatian: roda cipelarka — wading bird
  • Slovak: člnozobec kráľovský — wading bird
  • Slovene: čevljekljun — wading bird
  • Spanish: picozapato — wading bird
  • Swedish: träskonäbb — wading bird
  • Tamil: காலணி-அலகு நாரை (kālaṇi-alaku nārai) — wading bird
  • Thai: นกกระสาปากพลั่ว (nók grà-săa bpàak plûa) — wading bird
  • Turkish: pabuç gagalı — wading bird
  • Ukrainian: китоголо́в (kytoholóv) — wading bird
  • Vietnamese: cò mỏ giày — wading bird
  • Welsh: ciconia pig esgid — wading bird