parakeet

American  

[par-uh-keet] / ˈpær əˌkit /

Also paraquet, or parrakeet

noun

parakeets plural

1. any of numerous small, slender parrots, usually having a long, pointed, graduated tail, often kept as pets and noted for the ability to mimic speech: several species are endangered.

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parakeet British  

/ ˈpærəˌkiːt /

noun

1. any of numerous small usually brightly coloured long-tailed parrots, such as Psittacula krameri ( ring-necked parakeet ), of Africa

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• parakeets
  plural

Etymology

Origin of parakeet

1575–85; from Middle French paroquet “parrot,” apparently originally a diminutive of P(i)errot, diminutive of Pierre “Peter,” as a name for a parrot; the modern form and its earlier variants have been influenced by Italian parrocchetto and Spanish periquito (both ultimately from Middle French )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

parakeet parakeets

Her caged parakeet in the upper corner stares back at us, acknowledging our voyeurism.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026

The super breeders saving their endangered parakeet species.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 2, 2026

The bumps push out candy-striped and aproned gowns; they are exaggerated by belted waists, and one particularly protuberant tummy doubles as a perch for a parakeet.

From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2025

Supporters of the kakariki karaka - a green parakeet - put up billboards reading: "Dear John, don't disrupt the pecking order".

From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2023

“I don’t live here, you know. Sometime, maybe, they’ll let you visit my house—you’d love it. I have a dog and a tortoise and a parakeet. The parakeet talks, but it doesn’t mean anything.”

From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer

He goes by, tells her the parakeets are like “flying candy.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

Officers searched him and found two emaciated and potentially sedated orange-fronted parakeets — the victims of an alleged botched smuggling attempt — stuffed in his underwear, according to court documents.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026

To better understand how these initial interactions unfold, researchers placed groups of wild-caught monk parakeets together in a spacious flight pen.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 23, 2025

This is true for a veritable zoo of nonhuman creatures, including horses, parakeets, monkeys, and lizards, who all see the illusion as well.

From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2025

Hollow plastic parakeets full of sweets with heads you could unscrew.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy