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Glite Dictionary
🐦 A small bird ✈️ A war plane 🦟 A mosquito
mossie

mossie

9.9
A small brown bird like a sparrow that lives in gardens
  • noun
  • South African
translation icon : gorrión
  • A little mossie hopped along the garden fence looking for seeds this morning.

Examples

  • Children watched as a mossie built its nest under the roof.

  • The early morning was filled with the chirping of mossies in the trees.

  • A little mossie hopped along the garden fence looking for seeds this morning.

  • Look at that mossie on the fence.

  • The mossies are chirping outside my window.

  • Children watched as a mossie built its nest under the roof.

  • The early morning was filled with the chirping of mossies in the trees.

Synonyms

sparrow
vsmossie
38 1.0

A small brown or gray bird that sings and lives near people

is the regional informal South African name for that small bird
house sparrow
vsmossie
1 3.1

A small brown and grey bird that lives near people

is used locally as an informal term for such small brown birds
English sparrow
vsmossie
  • US
3.2

A small brown and grey bird that lives near people in towns

is a South African informal name for these small city birds
Passer domesticus
vsmossie
  • Specialized
8.1

A small brown and grey bird that lives near people worldwide

is the informal South African name used for the species in everyday speech

Surface Forms

mossie singular
mossies plural

Etymology

Mossie for a small bird comes from the Afrikaans word mus, which means 'sparrow', so in South African English a mossie is simply a little brown sparrow.