owl

🦉

Meaning

1. Any of various birds of prey of the order Strigiformes that are primarily nocturnal and have forward-looking, binocular vision, limited eye movement, and good hearing.
2. A person seen as having owl-like characteristics, especially appearing wise or serious, or being nocturnally active.
3. An owl pigeon.
4. A politician with moderate views that are neither hawkish nor dovish.
5. Any of various nymphalid butterflies, especially in the genus Caligo, having large eyespots on the wings.

barn owl

kite

🪁

bird of night

bird of Minerva

bird of pray

night-bird

a bird

nocturnal animal

Powerful Owl

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/aʊ(ə)l/

From Middle English oule, owle, from Old English ūle, from Proto-West Germanic *uwwilā, from Proto-Germanic *uwwalǭ (compare West Frisian ûle, Dutch uil, Danish and Norwegian ugle, German Eule), diminutive of *uwwǭ (“eagle-owl”) (compare German Uhu), of imitative origin or a variant of *ūfaz, *ūfǭ (compare Old English ūf or hūf, Swedish uv (“horned owl”), Bavarian Auf), from Proto-Indo-European *up- (compare Latvian ũpis (“eagle-owl”), Czech úpět (“to wail, howl”), Avestan 𐬎𐬟𐬌𐬌𐬈𐬌𐬨𐬌 (ufiieimi, “to call out”). A Germanic variant *uwwilǭ was the source of Old High German ūwila (German Eule).