hoatzin

[ hoh-at-sin, waht-sin ]

/ hoʊˈæt sɪn, ˈwɑt sɪn /

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noun

a blue-faced, crested bird, Opisthocomus hoazin, of the Amazon and Orinoco forests, having as a nestling a large, temporary claw on the second and third digits of the forelimb, for climbing among the tree branches.

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Also hoactzin.

Origin of hoatzin

1655–65; ≪ Nahuatl huāctzīn,huāhtzīn name for several hen-sized birds of the Valley of Mexico, apparently applied indiscriminately by early naturalists to similar New World birds

Words nearby hoatzin

hoary cress, hoary-headed, hoary marmot, hoast, hoatching, hoatzin, hoax, hob, Hoban, Hobart, Hobbema

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use hoatzin in a sentence

The other tribe is represented by that strange bird the hoatzin of the Amazon.
Birds in Flight|W. P. Pycraft
But it is not nearly so long as in the hoatzin, and there is no terminal claw.
Birds in Flight|W. P. Pycraft
The flight of the hoatzin resembles that of an over-fed hen.
Jungle Peace|William Beebe
Such is the normal right destiny of a hoatzin chick, and the whee-og!
Jungle Peace|William Beebe

For the young hoatzin is hatched in a nursery—a crude nest of sticks—placed on the boughs of a tree overhanging the water.
Birds in Flight|W. P. Pycraft

British Dictionary definitions for hoatzin

hoatzin

hoactzin

/ (həʊˈætsɪn) /

noun

a unique South American gallinaceous bird, Opisthocomus hoazin, with a brownish plumage, a very small crested head, and clawed wing digits in the young: family Opisthocomidae

Word Origin for hoatzin

C17: from American Spanish, from Nahuatl uatzin pheasant

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012