guillemot

American  

[gil-uh-mot] / ˈgɪl əˌmɒt /

noun

1. a black or brown-speckled seabird of the genus Cepphus, of northern seas, having a sharply pointed black bill, red legs, and white wing patches, as C. grylle black guillemot, of the North Atlantic Ocean and the similar C. columba pigeon guillemot of the North Pacific Ocean.

2. British. a murre of the genus Uria.

---

guillemot British  

/ ˈɡɪlɪˌmɒt /

noun

1. any northern oceanic diving bird of the genera Uria and Cepphus, having a black-and-white plumage and long narrow bill: family Alcidae (auks, etc), order Charadriiformes

---

Etymology

Origin of guillemot

First recorded in 1670–80; from French, apparently diminutive of Guillaume “William”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

guillemot

There is good news for some of the seabirds that breed in the UK, with the shag moving from the red list to the amber and the black guillemot from the amber to the green.

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2024

Other birds impacted by drones flying too close to the Oregon islands include the common murre, pigeon guillemot, tufted puffin and two types of cormorants.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 2, 2021

This was my first experience at this type of capturing the guillemot and I remember being a little scared.

From New York Times ● May 7, 2018

The extensive collections of early oologists, such as George Lupton, who amassed more than 1,000 guillemot eggs, fascinate Birkhead even as he laments this now illegal and inadmissible practice.

From Nature ● Apr. 12, 2016

The cormorant and puffin and guillemot can vanish at the flash of a gun, reappearing far from where they were last seen, and can pursue and catch some of the swiftest fishes under water.

From Birds in the Calendar by Frederick G. (Frederick George) Aflalo