coly
coly noun: any bird of either of the genera Colius or Urocolius, endemic to sub-Saharan Africa.
Noun
coly (plural colies)
- Any bird of either of the genera Colius or Urocolius, endemic to sub-Saharan Africa.
- First, their feathers grow continuously over their bodies without the bare spaces (apteria) between tracts most other birds have. This condition is shared only by the ostrich, the penguins, and the colies.1983, Oliver Luther Austin, Birds of the World, page 63
- Coliiformes is the only order of birds endemic to Africa. Six species from two genera (Urocolius and Colius) are recognized, all of which are sedentary. Mousebirds (also known as colies) range through sub-Saharan open savannas and are often common in such areas.1999, Michael A. Mares, Mousebird, entry in Encyclopedia of Deserts, page 378
- Synonyms:
- mousebird
Proper noun capitalized: Coly
Coly
Synonyms of coly
Forms of coly
| plural | colies |
|---|
Origin of coly
Learned borrowing from New Latin Colius.
Words formed from coly
Questions about coly
- What does coly mean?
- Coly means any bird of either of the genera Colius or Urocolius, endemic to sub-Saharan Africa.
- What part of speech is coly?
- Coly can be a noun or a proper noun.
- What is the plural of coly?
- The plural of coly is colies.
Words near coly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: coly (page history and authors); Coly (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “coly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.