oriole
Americannoun
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orioles
plural
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any of several usually brightly colored, passerine birds of the family Oriolidae, of the Old World.
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any of several brightly colored passerine birds of the family Icteridae, of the New World.
noun
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any songbird of the mainly tropical Old World family Oriolidae, such as Oriolus oriolus ( golden oriole ), having a long pointed bill and a mostly yellow-and-black plumage
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any American songbird of the family Icteridae, esp those of the genus Icterus, such as the Baltimore oriole, with a typical male plumage of black with either orange or yellow
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of oriole
1770–80; < French oriol, Old French < Medieval Latin oriolus, variant of Latin aureolus golden, equivalent to aure ( us ) golden (derivative of aurum gold) + -olus -ole 1
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 sometimes find it hard to enjoy a park hang with friends, because I’m hearing an oriole up above. So, in a way, it’s almost become debilitating and distracting.”
From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2025
Chimney swift, northern flicker, fish crow, killdeer, Baltimore oriole and gray catbird among them.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 7, 2023
One, very high up, might be that of a Baltimore oriole, which I love because of the way their nests hang like sporrans.
From New York Times ● Nov. 24, 2022
“That’s a hooded oriole, getting nectar from an aloe plant,” Cornett said when I asked him to ID an eye-popping, bright yellow bird with a contrasting fan of black neck and wing feathers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2021
Even the mice talked about it in their cellars under ground; and oriole did not sleep a wink, he worked so hard composing a song to Minnie's eyelashes.
From Minnie; or, The Little Woman A Fairy Story by Caroline Snowden Guild
Market hunters used shotguns, nets and traps to fill traincars with passenger pigeons—as well as robins, woodpeckers, blackbirds and orioles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
There's also some evidence that an animal's diet can trigger the condition in some species, such as Baltimore orioles.
From National Geographic ● Feb. 12, 2024
Fountains spout, hummingbirds and orioles dart and mountains rise in the background.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 31, 2023
“You hear orioles in the mountains behind us, and a stream runs through,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2021
There were no insects singing, there were no catbirds, or orioles, or vireos, or robins.
From "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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.
