Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

elephant bird

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.97 in modern English

Syllables: ele-phan-t bird
IPA

20

Scrabble Score

12

Letters

3

Syllables

11

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Any of the very large extinct flightless birds that make up the genera Aepyornis and Mullerornis within family Aepyornithidae, and lived in Madagascar until the 17th or 18th century; especially †Aepyornis maximus.

Example Sentences

"The fossil record is also poor for moa and the aepyornid elephant birds, in that both are mainly known from remains that date from historical times."
"Another very notable feature of Madagascar was the elephant bird (Aepyornis maximus), an enormous relative of the ostrich which reached 3 m in height."
"All^([of order Struthioniformes]) except tinamous are flightless; they include the largest birds ever known (moas and elephant birds) and the largest living bird (Ostrich)."

Etymology

Apparently from Marco Polo's description of the legendary roc as being capable of seizing a small elephant.

Inflected Forms

elephant birds (plural) elephantbird (alternative)

Synonyms

aepyornis

Questions

What does elephant bird mean?: Any of the very large extinct flightless birds that make up the genera Aepyornis and Mullerornis within family Aepyornithidae, and lived in Madagascar until the 17th or 18th century; especially †Aepyornis maximus.
Where does elephant bird come from?: Apparently from Marco Polo's description of the legendary roc as being capable of seizing a small elephant.

How to pronounce elephant bird

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