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• brant
  brant

  noun

  any of several species of small, dark-colored geese of the genus Branta, especially B. bernicla, breeding in high northern latitudes and migrating south in the autumn.
• Brant
  Brant

  noun

  Joseph Thayendanegea, 1742–1807, Mohawk Indian chief who fought on the side of the British in the American Revolution.

brant

¹ American  

[brant] / brænt /

noun

• brants,
  plural
• brant
  plural

1. any of several species of small, dark-colored geese of the genus Branta, especially B. bernicla, breeding in high northern latitudes and migrating south in the autumn.

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Brant ² American  

[brant] / brænt /

noun

1. Joseph Thayendanegea, 1742–1807, Mohawk Indian chief who fought on the side of the British in the American Revolution.

2. a male given name.

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brant British  

/ brænt /

noun

1. Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): brent goose.  a small goose, Branta bernicla, that has a dark grey plumage and short neck and occurs in most northern coastal regions

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• brant
  plural
• brants
  plural

Etymology

Origin of brant

First recorded in 1535–45; short for brantgoose, brentgoose; akin to Old Norse brandgās, German Brandgans

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

brant Brant brants

Izembek Lagoon holds one of the world’s largest beds of eelgrass, a rich food source for Pacific brant geese, endangered Steller’s eider sea ducks and other migratory birds.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 16, 2022

They are forming salt marshes that more closely resemble a golf green than the Arctic tundra -- habitat that happens to be perfect for black brant geese.

From Scientific American ● Feb. 7, 2014

It serves as a migratory stop for 98 percent of the world’s Pacific black brant as the bird makes its way south to Mexico for the winter.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 22, 2013

In the second room 25 similarly arranged images from the series “On Any Given Day in Spring” take a quite different tack, capturing wide open beaches dotted with flocks of shorebirds called brant.

From New York Times ● Oct. 11, 2012

Just as the steamboat came within hailing distance of the Isabel, a couple of brant fortunately flew over, and Dan fired.

From Watch and Wait or The Young Fugitives by Oliver Optic

BHA chief executive Brant Dunshea said the new strategy was about ensuring the "long-term health and success" of horse racing.

From BBC ● Mar. 19, 2026

Anonymity helped the street artist move unchecked but made some collectors wary; ”I feel more comfortable knowing who he is,” says collector Peter Brant.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026

Barely more than a week ago, Baffert likely would have listed his top Derby candidates as Plutarch, Litmus Test and Brant.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2026

The second favorite at 5-2 is undefeated Brant, who is trained by Baffert.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2025

But after our first summer at Nantucket, the Whitneys had their house jacked up, placed on rollers, and moved a mile away to a vacant lot near the tip of Brant Point.

From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

It concluded that both would have “major” impacts on brants, tundra swans, emperor geese, bears, fish and, potentially, caribou.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 15, 2017

But today, the numbers have switched: About 70 percent of the black brants now molt along the coast, having discovered the recent expansion of a new rich food source along the Beaufort Sea.

From Scientific American ● Feb. 7, 2014

In 1869, and prior to that date, brants and wild geese—or honkers—were very plentiful in the Puget Sound basin.

From Memoirs of Orange Jacobs by Orange Jacobs

The hunters all returned hungry, and drenched with rain; having seen neither deer nor elk, and the swans and brants too shy to be approached.

From Oregon and Eldorado or, Romance of the Rivers by Thomas Bulfinch

There are such a multitude of swans, geese, brants, sheldrakes, ducks of several sorts, mallard, teal, blewings, and many other kinds of water fowl, that the plenty of them is incredible.

From The History of Virginia, in Four Parts by Robert Beverley