waterfowl
Americannoun
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waterfowls,
plural
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waterfowl
plural
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a water bird, especially a swimming bird.
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such birds taken collectively, especially the swans, geese, and ducks.
noun
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any aquatic freshwater bird, esp any species of the family Anatidae (ducks, geese, and swans)
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such birds collectively
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of waterfowl
1250–1300; Middle English; cognate with German Wasservogel; see water, fowl
Vocabulary lists containing waterfowl
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
By the early 1990s, duck populations had exceeded the high of the 1950s; by 2015 almost 50 million waterfowl populated the prairie pothole region of the northern Great Plains.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
The swift placement effort was supported in part by community donations, including more than 70 bags of waterfowl feed provided by a local business, according to the San Jacinto Valley Animal Campus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2026
Don Phillips, head waterfowl warden, said it was not the first time nests had been lost.
From BBC ● Mar. 1, 2026
The researchers suggest that these young eagles could be taking advantage of seasonal food bonanzas such as spawning salmon, nesting waterfowl, or carcasses of large mammals.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 11, 2025
In summer they provide nesting areas for waterfowl, especially for two endangered species, the redhead and the ruddy duck.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
In the wild, influenza viruses generally spread among migratory waterfowls, such as ducks and geese.
From Salon ● Apr. 18, 2024
In fact, fast-swimming marine mammals and waterfowls tend to forgo drag-based thrust in favor of lift-based thrust, another propulsion system.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 8, 2024
The buffer of plants will discourages waterfowls, which prefer open grassy areas and succulent lawns, according to the public-health department.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 13, 2021
For many years the tops of immense trees could be seen in the water by boatmen as they hunted the waterfowls or cast line for the fish with which it abounds.
From Stories of Old Kentucky by Martha Grassham Purcell
But there were no waterfowls and no birds on the islets.
From After London Or, Wild England by Richard Jefferies
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
