Mallard

//ˈmælɚd// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Anas platyrhynchos, a common and widespread dabbling duck, natively found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, whose male has a distinctive dark green head. countable
  2. 2
    wild dabbling duck from which domestic ducks are descended; widely distributed wordnet
  3. 3
    The meat of this bird, eaten as food. uncountable
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    A minor city in Palo Alto County, Iowa, United States, named for the duck. countable, uncountable
  3. 3
    A ghost town in Itasca Township, Clearwater County, Minnesota, United States, named after a nearby lake. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
anas platyrhynchosmagpie

Example

More examples

"There are mallard ducks near the pond."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English malard, mawlard, from Old French malard, malart, mallart (“male wild duck”), from Old French male, masle (“male”) + -ard, -art. Cognate with Medieval Latin maslardus, mallardus.

Etymology 2

Eponymised form of mallard.

Related phrases

manky mallardmottled mallardanas platyrhynchosdabbling duck

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