Sparrowhawk

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A Eurasian sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus, a small, short-winged European hawk that preys on smaller birds.
  2. 2
    A Eurasian sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus, a small, short-winged European hawk that preys on smaller birds.; A female such bird, a male being a musket.
  3. 3
    Any of numerous other relatively small birds of Old World species of Accipiter, that prey on smaller birds or otherwise resemble A. nisus.
  4. 4
    Alternative form of sparrow hawk; American kestrel, Falco sparverius, of similar size and habit. alt-of, alternative

Synonyms

All synonyms
eurasian sparrowhawkeurasian sparrowhawk

Etymology

From Middle English sparhauk, sperhauk, from Old English spearhafoc, spearhabuc (“sparrow-hawk”), from Proto-West Germanic *sparwahabuk, from Proto-Germanic *sparwahabukaz, equivalent to sparrow + hawk. Cognate with Danish spurvehøg (“sparrowhawk”), Swedish sparvhök (“sparrowhawk”), Icelandic sparrhaukur (“sparrowhawk”).

Related phrases

African little sparrowhawkAmerican sparrowhawkChinese sparrowhawkEurasian sparrowhawkFrances’s sparrowhawkHilgert's sparrowhawkJapanese sparrowhawkLevant sparrowhawkMadagascan sparrowhawkNew Britain sparrowhawkNicobar sparrowhawkOvambo sparrowhawk

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