puffin
/ˈpʌfɪn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.66 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) or (by extension) any of the other various small seabirds of the genera Fratercula and Lunda that are black and white with a brightly-coloured beak.
noun
Any of various African and Asian pierid butterflies of the genus Appias. Some species of this genus are also known as albatrosses.
Example Sentences
- "The place was just, in short, the only spot on that part of the coast where anybody could well live; there was a neat little creek, where a boat might lie as snug as a puffin in her nest, and out from this creek a ledge of sunken rocks ran into the sea."
- "Naturally the Chickies and the Gooverooskies and the Epatkas—the Burgomaster Gulls and the Kittiwakes and the Puffins, who are always looking for a chance to be rude—took up the cry, and—so Limmershin told me—for nearly five minutes you could not have heard a gun fired on Walrus Islet."
Etymology
From Middle English poffin, poffoun, puffon, equivalent to puff + -ing, or perhaps ultimately from Middle Cornish (compare Breton poc'han (“puffin”)).