🐦 A European bird 🐦 A North American bird

blackbird

8 1.0

A common songbird in Europe with black feathers and a yellow beak

noun
/ˈblækˌbɜrd/

: mirlo

The blackbird sings on the same cypress where the solitary nightingale delivers its mournful song.
blackbird sings
blackbird nest
European blackbird

Examples

Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie?

Fiction book (1991)
Some blackbirds singing in the dead of night.
Does the blackbird still sing?

The Blue Bird (1976)
Again, he could hear the song of the blackbird in the garden.

Fiction book (1995)
When a blackbird landed in the garden, she caught it and ate it.

Fiction book (2002)
On the branch, the blackbird observes the action.

Fiction book (1996)
The boy's friends in the town have heard that the lighthouse keeper has a caged blackbird in the lighthouse, which he has trained to speak and which whistles.

Fiction book (1999)
The meadow was a more vivid green, the pear tree glowed, and the blackbird's song was louder and sweeter.

Academic text (2002)
The male blackbird is easily recognized by its glossy, all-black feathers and bright yellow bill.
In the early morning, you could hear a blackbird singing beautifully from the treetops.

Synonyms

merle

vsblackbird

8 9.9

A common black bird in Europe with a yellow beak and a sweet song

focuses more on physical appearance, especially male black plumage

merl

vsblackbird

Archaic

1 9.9

A common bird in Europe with all black feathers that sings in gardens

is the modern common name still used for the same species

European blackbird

vsblackbird

3.8

A common bird with a black male and a brown female that sings a beautiful song

is the common name for that species highlighting male black plumage

Turdus merula

vsblackbird

Specialized

8.9

A common European songbird with males black and females brown

is the everyday label used for that species rather than the scientific name

ousel

vsblackbird

Archaic

9.9

A black bird that sings, like a blackbird or ring ouzel

is the usual term for the common species rather than the ring form

ouzel

vsblackbird

Archaic

9.9

A bird like a blackbird or dipper that lives in Europe and Asia

is narrower, meaning specifically the common thrush species with black males

Compounds

red-winged blackbird

1 5.8

A North American blackbird with bright red and yellow shoulder patches on males

rusty blackbird

1 9.3

A North American blackbird with dark feathers that have rusty edges in autumn

crow blackbird

8.4

A large black bird with a long tail and shiny feathers

European blackbird

3.8

A common bird with a black male and a brown female that sings a beautiful song

New World blackbird

6.8

A bird from the Americas whose male is mostly black

ring blackbird

9.9

A black thrush with a white band around its neck that lives on rocky hills

Surface Forms

blackbird singular

blackbirds plural

Morphology

blackbird = black + bird (transparent) = black + bird

A straightforward descriptive compound 'black' + 'bird' denoting a bird that is black; the meaning is directly derivable from its parts.

Etymology

Blackbird is a simple name made from black and bird, literally 'black' 'bird'. In Europe this name became used for a common garden thrush whose male is all black with a yellow bill, so the word tells you exactly what the bird looks like.