great horned owl
1
4.0
- noun
- /ɡreɪt hɔrnd aʊl/
- US
:
búho cornudo
- During a hike in the forest, we spotted a great horned owl with its distinctive tufted ears.
- great horned owl hooted
- pair of great horned owls
- great horned owls killed
Examples
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Sometimes one can see crows or other birds mobbing a great horned owl they have discovered.
Blog text (18) -
Great horned owls are beautifully camouflaged with mixtures of brown, gray, and black mottling.
Blog text (18) -
From its broad wings, short tail, and large size, I was pretty certain it was a great horned owl.
Blog text (18) -
If it is the great horned owl, he can probably see you from his perch, and is telling the night how beautiful you are.
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Plenty of critters kill house cats, from great horned owls to dogs.
Fiction book (1998) -
With the current high numbers of varying hares on the peninsula, great horned owls have probably been feeding well for the past couple of years.
Blog text (18) -
I was astonished to meet the wide-eyed gaze of a great horned owl.
Fiction book (2002) -
While that is just a story, great horned owls are actually the only known avian predators of skunks.
Blog text (18) -
Great horned owls are also a major predator of young raptors, like ospreys.
Blog text (18) -
I've seen big birds up close twice in my life—one great horned owl and one falcon, and I never forgot it.
Fiction book (1993)
Synonyms
210
1.0
A night bird with big eyes that face forward and a round head
1
4.2
A large owl with feather tufts that look like ears
A large brown owl with ear tufts and a deep hoot
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase is directly compositional: 'great' (very large) + 'horned' (having horn-like projections or tufts) + 'owl' (a bird) yields the meaning 'a large owl with horn-like tufts.' This straightforward adjective-adjective-noun descriptive pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the referent.
Etymology
The name great horned owl comes from how it looks: great means very large and horned points to the two feathers on its head that stick up and look like small 'horns'. So the name tells you it is a large owl with horn-like feathers.