common murre

1 8.4

A large black and white seabird that nests on cliffs and dives for fish

noun
/ˈkɑːmən mɜːr/

: murre común

The common murre is a large black-and-white seabird that can often be seen diving for fish in the northern Atlantic.

Examples

These techniques have been used to bring common murres back to a breeding site off the coast of California that was devastated by an oil spill in 1986.

Blog text (8)
Found there are also Kittiwake gulls, Common murres, Razorbills, Leach's storm petrels, and Herring gulls, among other species.

Academic text (2010)
During the summer, common murres gather in large colonies on rocky cliffs to breed and raise their chicks.
Researchers studied the feeding patterns of common murres along the Pacific coast to understand their breeding habits.

Synonyms

murre

vscommon murre

1 9.9

A black and white sea bird that dives for fish

is a specific species within that genus found across northern oceans

Uria aalge

vscommon murre

Specialized

9.9

A black-and-white sea bird that nests on rocky cliffs in northern oceans

is the everyday English name for the same species not the Latin name

Surface Forms

common murre singular

common murres plural

Morphology

common + murre

The phrase is a straightforward adjective + noun composition: 'common' (widespread/typical) modifies 'murre' (a specific seabird), so the referential meaning is directly derivable from the constituents. This compositional pattern (ADJ + animal name) is cross-linguistically common and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both words.

Etymology

Common murre may get its name from the bird's low call 'murr', which sounds like its name. People added common to show this murre is the one seen most often, so the name tells us it is a 'widespread' sea bird.