Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

sparrowhawk

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.15 in modern English

Syllables
spar-rowhawk
IPA
26
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A Eurasian sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus, a small, short-winged European hawk that preys on smaller birds.

noun

A Eurasian sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus, a small, short-winged European hawk that preys on smaller birds.

noun

Any of numerous other relatively small birds of Old World species of Accipiter, that prey on smaller birds or otherwise resemble A. nisus.

noun

Alternative form of sparrow hawk; American kestrel, Falco sparverius, of similar size and habit.

Etymology

From Middle English sparhauk, sperhauk, from Old English spearhafoc, spearhabuc (“sparrow-hawk”), from Proto-West Germanic *sparwahabuk, from Proto-Germanic *sparwahabukaz, equivalent to sparrow + hawk. Cognate with Danish spurvehøg (“sparrowhawk”), Swedish sparvhök (“sparrowhawk”), Icelandic sparrhaukur (“sparrowhawk”).

Origin

Word Breakdown

  • Root: *keh₂p-, sparhauk, spearhafoc, *sparwahabuk, *sparwahabukaz

Inflected Forms

sparrowhawks (plural) sparrow-hawk (alternative) sparrow hawk (alternative) sparhawk (alternative) spar-hawk (alternative)

Phrases

African little sparrowhawk American sparrowhawk black sparrowhawk chestnut-flanked sparrowhawk Chinese sparrowhawk collared sparrowhawk Eurasian sparrowhawk dwarf sparrowhawk

Questions

What does sparrowhawk mean?
A Eurasian sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus, a small, short-winged European hawk that preys on smaller birds.
Where does sparrowhawk come from?
It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce sparrowhawk

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