wood swallow
- noun
- Australian
:
martinete
- The wood swallow swooped gracefully over the meadow, hawking insects in midair.
Examples
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In parts of Southeast Asia, the wood swallow is a common sight near forest edges and open country.
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A flock of wood swallows perched high in the eucalyptus trees, chattering among themselves.
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Look at that wood swallow catching insects!
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The wood swallow perched on the branch.
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A flock of wood swallows perched high in the eucalyptus trees, chattering among themselves.
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In parts of Southeast Asia, the wood swallow is a common sight near forest edges and open country.
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The wood swallow swooped gracefully over the meadow, hawking insects in midair.
Synonyms
A small bird from Asia and Australia that looks like a swallow and has a hooked beak
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly built from 'wood' (a wooded area) + 'swallow' (a small bird), so a learner who knows both words will readily infer it denotes a swallow-like bird associated with woods; although it names a specific taxon, that nuance does not block basic compositional understanding. Noun‑noun compounding of this kind is common cross‑linguistically and follows standard English patterns, making the meaning transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Wood swallow comes from a simple picture: the bird looks like a slim swallow and often perches in trees or forest wood. So people named it wood swallow to show it is 'swallow-like' and 'lives near woods', which explains the name today.
