ibis
Americannoun
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ibises,
plural
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ibis
plural
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any of several large wading birds of the family Threskiornithidae, of warm temperate and tropical regions, related to the herons and storks, and characterized by a long, thin, downward-curved bill.
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any of certain similar birds belonging to the stork family Ciconiidae, especially the wood stork, Mycteria americana.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ibis
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin ībis < Greek îbis < Egyptian hb
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.
See Examples For:
I pivoted back to the overlook, where a beautiful white ibis was hunting for frogs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
More than a hundred bird species, including ducks, geese, terns, ibis, herons, eagles and vultures, had been recorded in the area, alongside monkeys and small mammals.
From Barron's ● Feb. 19, 2026
The 1.8m-long cloak, made of 4,000 red feathers from the scarlet ibis bird, was officially unveiled at a ceremony in Rio de Janeiro.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2024
The bird species included tawny frogmouths, laughing kookaburras, blue-faced honeyeaters, rainbow lorikeets, spotted doves and Brisbane favourite, the Australian white ibis.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 8, 2023
The sanctity of these animals sometimes varied in different districts, and the ibis was venerated where the serpent was disregarded.
From Curiosities of Medical Experience by J. G. (John Gideon) Millingen
Despite their name, shoebill storks are actually more closely related to pelicans, herons and ibises.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
In past years, he said, the ibises would either “just utilize this for a roosting siteand wouldn’t nest because of the lack of water, or they nested but were unsuccessful in fledging out their young.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2023
Calabro and I talked a little bit about local wildlife: the striped bass, the oystercatchers, the glossy ibises that nest somewhere near the marsh islands around the North Channel Bridge near JFK Airport.
From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2022
Outliers included big albatrosses and tiny hummingbirds, and ibises with their long, curved beaks.
From Science Magazine ● Jul. 21, 2022
The halls were empty and the lotus garden deserted, except for ibises meditating on the existence of frogs.
From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer
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.
