WOODPECKER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does woodpecker mean? 

• WOODPECKER (noun)
  The noun WOODPECKER has 1 sense:

1. bird with strong claws and a stiff tail adapted for climbing and a hard chisel-like bill for boring into wood for insects

  Familiarity information: WOODPECKER used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WOODPECKER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Bird with strong claws and a stiff tail adapted for climbing and a hard chisel-like bill for boring into wood for insects

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

pecker; peckerwood; woodpecker

Hypernyms ("woodpecker" is a kind of...):

piciform bird (any of numerous nonpasserine insectivorous climbing birds usually having strong bills for boring wood)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "woodpecker"):

green woodpecker; Picus viridis (woodpecker of Europe and western Asia)

downy woodpecker (small North American woodpecker with black and white plumage and a small bill)

flicker (North American woodpecker)

Campephilus principalis; ivory-billed woodpecker; ivorybill (large black-and-white woodpecker of southern United States and Cuba having an ivory bill; nearly extinct)

Melanerpes erythrocephalus; redhead; redheaded woodpecker (black-and-white North American woodpecker having a red head and neck)

sapsucker (small American woodpecker that feeds on sap from e.g. apple and maple trees)

wryneck (Old World woodpecker with a peculiar habit of twisting the neck)

piculet (small woodpeckers of South America and Africa and East Indies having soft rounded tail feathers)

Holonyms ("woodpecker" is a member of...):

family Picidae; Picidae (woodpeckers)

 Context examples 

He studied the wood-mice and tried to dig them out of their burrows; and he learned much about the ways of moose-birds and woodpeckers.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Partridges and woodpeckers were booming and knocking in the forest.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Chattering jays and loud wood-pigeons flapped thickly overhead, while ever and anon the measured tapping of Nature's carpenter, the great green woodpecker, sounded from each wayside grove.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

These animals include jaguars, Spix's macaws, harpy eagles, vinaceous-breasted amazons, crowned solitary eagles, hawksbill turtles, green turtles, tarantulas, Amazon false coral snakes, Brazilian green racer snakes, cream-colored woodpeckers, blue spiny starfish, sharks, seahorses, piaba fish, sawfish, bluefin tuna, brown howler monkeys.

(Over 300 animal species threatened in Bahia, Agência Brasil)

This helped the cub's courage, and though the woodpecker he next encountered gave him a start, he proceeded confidently on his way.

(White Fang, by Jack London)