What does "oscine" mean?

Any bird of the suborder Passeri (the songbirds), which have better vocal control than other birds.

What is a synonym for "oscine"?

Common synonyms include: aquiline, avian, dovelike, goosy, nesting, oscine bird.

Oscine

//ˈɒ.saɪn// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
Any bird of the suborder Passeri (the songbirds), which have better vocal control than other birds.
"Because the oscines are the most speciose group of living birds, the use of learned vocalizations for mate competition and attraction has been hypothesized to have facilitated speciation (Marler and Tamura 1962; Slabbekoorn and Smith 2002; see Ricklefs [2003] for an alternative view)."
2
passerine bird having specialized vocal apparatus wordnet

Adjective

1
Of or pertaining to songbirds (suborder Passeri). not-comparable

Adjective

1
of or relating to the songbirds wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

aquiline avian dovelike goosy nesting oscine bird

Example

More examples

"Because the oscines are the most speciose group of living birds, the use of learned vocalizations for mate competition and attraction has been hypothesized to have facilitated speciation (Marler and Tamura 1962; Slabbekoorn and Smith 2002; see Ricklefs [2003] for an alternative view)."

Etymology

From Latin oscen (“songbird”).

Related phrases

nine-primaried oscine

More for "oscine"

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