Chaffinch
//ˈt͡ʃæfɪnt͡ʃ// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A small passerine bird, Fringilla coelebs, of the finch family, found throughout Europe and eastward to Iran and eastern Mediterranean coastlands.
- 2 small European finch with a cheerful song wordnet
Example
More examples"The Lark sings as it flies in the air, the Quail sitting on the ground; others, on the boughs of trees, such as: the Canary, the Chaffinch, the Goldfinch, the Siskin, the Linner, the little Titmouse, the Woodwall, the Robin Redbreast, the Hedge Sparrow and so on."
Etymology
From Middle English chaffynch, chaffynche, caffynche, equivalent to chaff + finch. However, more recently the first element has been argued to derive from the same root as Old English cæfed (“ornamented”) and cæfing (“hair-ornament”), thus meaning "ornamented finch, colourful finch".
Related phrases
More for "chaffinch"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.