sparrow

B2 Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈspæɹ.oʊ/ UK /ˈspæɹ.əʊ/ See IPA manual

noun name Freq #11082

Meanings

1

noun
A small, common brown and gray bird with a short beak.

A sparrow hopped along the path looking for crumbs.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a small, common brown and... true sparrow

Word family

Forms sparrows

Derived forms sparrow-fartsparrow-grasssparrow-larksparrow-proofsparrow-weaversparrowcidesparrowdomsparrowgrasssparrowhawksparrowishsparrowlarksparrowless

Etymology

From Middle English sparwe, sparowe, from Old English spearwa, from Proto-West Germanic *sparwō, from Proto-Germanic *sparwô, from Proto-Indo-European *spḗr (“sparrow”). Cognate with Dutch spreeuw (“starling”), Alemannic German Spar (“sparrow”), German Sperling (“sparrow”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål spurv (“sparrow”), Norwegian Nynorsk sporv (“sparrow”), Swedish sparv (“sparrow”), Breton frao (“crow”), Tocharian A ṣpārāñ, Ancient Greek ψάρ (psár, “starling”).

sparwe Middle English spearwa Old English *sparwō Proto-West Germanic *sparwô Proto-Germanic *spḗr Proto-Indo-European

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Topics

Describing Qualities

# sparrow

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** noun, name
**IPA (US):** ˈspæɹ.oʊ
**IPA (UK):** ˈspæɹ.əʊ
**Frequency rank:** 11082

## Meanings
1. A small, common brown and gray bird with a short beak.

## Examples
- A sparrow hopped along the path looking for crumbs.

## Derived Forms
- sparrow-fart
- sparrow-grass
- sparrow-lark
- sparrow-proof
- sparrow-weaver
- sparrowcide
- sparrowdom
- sparrowgrass
- sparrowhawk
- sparrowish
- sparrowlark
- sparrowless

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: sparwe
- Root: spearwa
- Root: *sparwō
- Root: *sparwô
- Root: *spḗr

## Etymology
From Middle English sparwe, sparowe, from Old English spearwa, from Proto-West Germanic *sparwō, from Proto-Germanic *sparwô, from Proto-Indo-European *spḗr (“sparrow”). Cognate with Dutch spreeuw (“starling”), Alemannic German Spar (“sparrow”), German Sperling (“sparrow”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål spurv (“sparrow”), Norwegian Nynorsk sporv (“sparrow”), Swedish sparv (“sparrow”), Breton frao (“crow”), Tocharian A ṣpārāñ, Ancient Greek ψάρ (psár, “starling”).

## AI Etymology
Sparrow is from Middle English sparwe, sparowe, from Old English spearwa, from Proto-West Germanic *sparwō, from Proto-Germanic *sparwô, from Proto-Indo-European *spḗr (“sparrow”). Cognate with Dutch spreeuw (“starling”), Alemannic German Spar (“sparrow”), German Sperling (“sparrow”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål spurv (“sparrow”), Norwegian Nynorsk sporv (“sparrow”), Swedish sparv (“sparrow”), Breton frao (“crow”), Tocharian A ṣpārāñ, Ancient Greek ψάρ (psár, “starling”). Important forms in the word's history include Middle English sparwe, Old English spearwa, Proto-West Germanic *sparwō, Proto-Germanic *sparwô, Proto-Indo-European *spḗr. In current use it includes the sense A small, common brown and gray bird with a short beak.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

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