woodpecker
noun
Simple meaning
A bird that uses its beak to find insects in trees.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
wuudpuhkerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈwʊdpɛkɚ
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
Any bird of species-rich family Picidae, with a strong pointed beak suitable for pecking holes in wood.
Bird with strong claws and a stiff tail adapted for climbing and a hard chisel-like bill for boring into wood for insects
military slang
A Type 92 heavy machine gun.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Any bird of species-rich family Picidae, with a strong pointed beak suitable for pecking holes in wood.
Used this way, woodpecker is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
- Family/home
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Small North American woodpecker with black and white plumage and a small bill.
Woodpecker of Europe and western Asia.
Large black-and-white woodpecker of southern United States and Cuba having an ivory bill.
Black-and-white North American woodpecker having a red head and neck.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.