Colin

//ˈkɒlɪn// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The American quail or bobwhite, or related species.

    "To this belongs the Colin or Quail of New England and Partridge of the South […]"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A male given name from Ancient Greek.

    "That iolly shepheard, which there piped, was / Poore Colin Clout (who knowes not Colin Clout?)"

  2. 2
    A rather rare surname originating as a patronymic, variant of Collin.

Synonyms

All synonyms
tom collinsdrinkjohn collinstom collinswilliam wilkie collins

Example

More examples

"Secretary of State Colin Powell and other U.S. officials are traveling to Mexico City, Monday, to take part in the annual binational commission meeting with their Mexican counterparts."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Diminutive of Coll, a medieval short form of Nicholas. It has also been used to anglicize Irish Coileán and Scottish Gaelic Cailean.

Etymology 2

From French colin, properly a diminutive of Colas, contracted from Nicolas (“Nicholas”).

More for "colin"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.