noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Either of two large ground-dwelling Australian songbirds, of the genus Menura, named because of the beautiful tail feathers of the male of one species, the superb lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae), which can be erected to look like a lyre, and notable for their extraordinary ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds from their environment.

   "A lyrebird strolled past me on its large feet, among the granite boulders."

2. 2
   Australian bird that resembles a pheasant; the courting male displays long tail feathers in a lyre shape wordnet

Example

More examples

"A lyrebird strolled past me on its large feet, among the granite boulders."

Etymology

From lyre + bird.

Related phrases

Albert's lyrebirdsuperb lyrebirdsuperb lyrebird

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