What does "waterfowl" mean?

Any of the birds, such as ducks, geese and swans, that spend most of their non-flying time on water; especially those of the family Anatidae.

What is a synonym for "waterfowl"?

Common synonyms include: wildfowl, avifauna, baby bird, bird, bird of jove, bird of juno.

noun

noun ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Any of the birds, such as ducks, geese and swans, that spend most of their non-flying time on water; especially those of the family Anatidae.
2
freshwater aquatic bird wordnet

"My little sister was excited to see the waterfowl."

From Middle English waterfoul, water-foul, equivalent to water + fowl. Compare Old English dopfugel (“waterfowl, moorhen”, literally “dipping-fowl”).

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