sparrow
noun
Simple meaning
A small bird with a short bill, and brown, white and gray feathers.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
spehrohSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈspɛɹoʊ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The house sparrow, Passer domesticus; a small bird with a short bill, and brown, white and gray feathers.
Any of several small dull-colored singing birds feeding on seeds or insects
Generically, any small, nondescript bird.
A member of the family Passeridae, comprising small Old World songbirds.
A member of the family Passerellidae (or Emberizidae, under classification systems that subsume the New World sparrows under Emberizidae), comprising small New World songbirds.
ukchiefly london
A quick-witted, lively person.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The house sparrow, Passer domesticus; a small bird with a short bill, and brown, white and gray feathers.
Used this way, sparrow is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It stays understated rather than dramatic. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Mild
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use sparrow
- “A small brown sparrow hopped around looking for crumbs on the ground.”noun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.