Phrase guide
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
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.
No pronunciation record was provided for this word.
noun
Any of several species of birds in the family Viduidae, incorporating whydahs and widow finches.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Any of several species of birds in the genus Euplectes.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
mostly black African weaverbird
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: whydah, whidah
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: weaver, weaverbird, weaver finch
History
Compound of widow + bird. The name for the family Viduidae derives from the genus name Vidua, from post-classical Latin vidua (“widow”) for males' black plumage, which resembles the mourning clothes of a widow. Compare whydah, from Whydah, a city in the Kingdom of Dahomey, now Ouidah, Benin. The terms widow-bird and whydah-bird influenced one another due to association of one species with the city.
Across languages
2 source translations are retained for this English entry.
