Linnet
name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A small passerine bird, the common linnet (Linaria cannabina syn. Carduelis cannabina), in the finch family Fringillidae, native to Europe, western Asia, and north Africa.
"I do but sing because I must, And pipe but as the linnets sing: And unto one her note is gay, For now her little ones have ranged; And unto one her note is changed, Because her brood is stol’n away."
- 2 small Old World finch whose male has a red breast and forehead wordnet
- 3 A house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), of North America. US
- 4 small finch originally of the western United States and Mexico wordnet
- 1 A female given name from English, occasionally recorded since the 19th century.
"Lindy herself hated the name Lindy. She said it sounded like a girl in pink gingham. At the beginning of this school year she'd started making all the teachers address her by her full name, Linnet. (She'd been named for an English bird that a soldier had mentioned to their mother during the war.) At first Karen had tried to call her that too, but it had felt so unnatural that she'd gradually given it up."
Example
More examples"But to sit there swinging his legs—this did not suffice to satisfy his heart, did not enable him to celebrate his instincts; and suddenly from his thicket of forest trees and greening bushes he began to pour forth a thrilling little tide of song, with the native sweetness of some human linnet unaware of its transcendent gift."
Etymology
From Old French linette, from lin (“flax”), from the bird's fondness for the seeds of flax, the source of linen and Old English līnete, līnetwige (“linnet”) (> dialectal English lintwhite).
From linnet (“a type of bird”).
Related phrases
More for "linnet"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.