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Glite Dictionary
🐧 A sea bird 🪶 About sea birds
alcid

alcid

9.9
A seabird like a puffin that dives to catch fish in northern oceans
  • noun
  • /ˈæl.sɪd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : alcido
  • In northern oceans, you can often see alcids resting on rocky cliffs or diving for fish.

Examples

  • These seabirds, classified as alcids, are well adapted to life in cold marine environments.

  • These wonderful birds are members of the Alcid family and indeed share the island with their distant relatives, the sleeker, trimmer Razorbills and Murres.

    Academic text (2001)

  • The alcids, including puffins and murres, are known for their exceptional diving abilities in the icy waters of the North.

Synonyms

seabird
vsalcid
10 1.9

A bird that lives near the sea and often flies over water, like gulls or albatrosses

is specifically the northern family of diving birds rather than all ocean birds
auk
vsalcid
1 9.1

A black-and-white sea bird that dives for fish and lives on northern cliffs

is a broader family grouping that includes this and similar northern diving birds

Surface Forms

alcid singular
alcids plural

Morphology

alcid = Alcidae (opaque) = alc + id

Formed from the scientific family name and a taxonomic adjective/noun ending, which is not a productive, guessable morphological process for general learners.

Etymology

The word alcid comes from the old name Alca, which came from a northern word alka meaning 'sea bird' like an auk or puffin. So an alcid is one of those diving sea birds, such as a puffin, auk, or murre, that live in northern oceans.