songbird

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a bird known for a musical call or song

   A songbird called repeatedly from the willow beside the river.

2. 2
   noun

   a passerine bird of the suborder Passeri, distinguished by a highly developed vocal organ

   The thrush is a songbird with a complex learned song.

3. 3
   noun

   figurative: a singer with a notably pleasant or expressive voice

   The young songbird became the theater's leading soprano.

A compound of song + bird. It is used broadly for birds with melodious calls and more narrowly in ornithology for the oscines, whose vocal anatomy supports elaborate song; figurative use for a singer followed naturally.

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