owl
n. countablen. a bird with large eyes and a flat face that is active at night. It is known for being able to turn its head almost all the way around and for flying very quietly.
n. a nocturnal bird of prey belonging to the order Strigiformes, characterised by a large head, forward-facing eyes, and feathers adapted for silent flight.
An owl hunts for small animals in the dark.
We heard the hoot of an owl coming from the old oak tree behind the house last night.
While most birds are active during the day, the owl has evolved specialized tubular eyes and exceptional hearing to locate prey in near-total darkness.
From Middle English oule, owle, from Old English ūle, from Proto-West Germanic uwwilā, from Proto-Germanic uwwalǭ (compare West Frisian ûle, Dutch uil, Danish and Norwegian ugle, German Eule), diminutive of uwwǭ (“eagle-owl”) (compare German Uhu), of imitative origin or a variant of ūfaz, ūfǭ (compare Old English ūf or hūf, Swedish uv (“horned owl”), Bavarian Auf), from Proto-Indo-European up- (compare Latvian ũpis (“eagle-owl”), Czech úpět (“to wail, howl”), Avestan 𐬎𐬟𐬌𐬌𐬈𐬌𐬨𐬌 (ufiieimi, “to call out”). A Germanic variant *uwwilǭ was the source of Old High German ūwila (German Eule).