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Glite Dictionary
🥃 Anise liqueur 🐦 Tropical birds
anis

anis

9.9
Large tropical American birds with long tails and loud calls
  • noun
  • /ˈænɪs/
  • US
translation icon : anis
  • In the Galapagos, anis are poignant indicators of human incursion, brought in on Santa Cruz as tickbirds by settlers for their cattle.

Examples

  • The smooth-billed anis are known for their loud, harsh calls, which can be heard across the tropical landscape.

  • Exotic smooth-billed anis, introduced by local farmers, account for most of the visible bird life.

    Academic text (2009)

  • They call it DVB in that graph that displaced the role of the anis anis.

  • During our hike, we spotted a group of anis perched on a branch, their distinctive calls echoing through the forest.

  • In the wetlands of South America, anis can often be seen foraging for insects in social groups.

Synonyms

cuckoo
vsanis
23 4.4

A bird with a loud, clear call that lays eggs in other birds' nests

is narrower, meaning several tropical American members of that family
genus Crotophaga
vsanis
  • Specialized
9.9

A group of tropical American birds, including the smooth-billed ani

is the plural word form for several members of that group
Crotophaga
vsanis
  • Specialized
9.9

A tropical American bird with a grooved bill that lives in social groups

refers to multiple individual birds of that same genus rather than the genus

Surface Forms

ani singular
anis plural

Morphology

anis = ani (transparent) = ani + s

Regular plural formation: the noun 'ani' takes the productive English plural suffix '-s', so the meaning is predictably 'more than one ani'.

Etymology

Anis (the birds) is simply the plural of ani, a name borrowed from a native American word for these loud, long-tailed cuckoos, so anis means 'several ani birds'.