What does "hoopoe" mean?

Any Old World bird of genus Upupa, especially Upupa epops (Eurasian hoopoe), known for its distinctive plumage, fanlike crest, and slender bill.

What is a synonym for "hoopoe"?

Common synonyms include: hoopoo, magpie.

Hoopoe

//ˈhupu// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
Any Old World bird of genus Upupa, especially Upupa epops (Eurasian hoopoe), known for its distinctive plumage, fanlike crest, and slender bill.
"For quotations using this term, see Citations:hoopoe."
2
any of several crested Old World birds with a slender downward-curved bill wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

hoopoo magpie

Example

More examples

"The Ostrich is the largest bird, the Wren the smallest; the Owl is the most despicable; the Hoopoe the most dirty (as it eats dung); the Bird of Paradise is most rare."

Etymology

Alteration of obsolete hoopoop, from earlier hoop, from Middle French and Old French huppe, from Latin upupa, ultimately onomatopoeic; Compare Ancient Greek ἔποψ (épops), Persian پوپو (popo).

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