auk
Americannoun
noun
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any of various diving birds of the family Alcidae of northern oceans having a heavy body, short tail, narrow wings, and a black-and-white plumage: order Charadriiformes See also great auk razorbill auk
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a small short-billed auk, Plautus alle, abundant in Arctic regions
Etymology
Origin of auk
1665–75; < Scandinavian; compare Old Norse alka
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.
Along with the passenger pigeon we exterminated the great auk, the Carolina parakeet, the Labrador duck and the ivory-billed woodpecker.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
"The little auk, also known as the dovekie, emerges as a sentinel species in monitoring Arctic environmental shifts," says Dr. Anders Mosbech, co-author from Aarhus University.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 15, 2024
Interest in the subject has accelerated because of die-offs of some of the puffin’s auk family relatives, such ascommon murres and Cassin’s auklets off the West Coast.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 29, 2023
McGrain’s subjects have included, among others, the passenger pigeon, the great auk, the Labrador duck, the heath hen, and the Carolina parakeet.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 14, 2018
Any lesser auk might have called it quits.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
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.
