Word.ws English Dictionary

egret

/ˈiːɡɹɪt/US/ˈiɡɹɪt/

egret noun: any of various wading birds of the genera Egretta or Ardea that includes herons, many of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes during the breeding season.

egret: any of various wading birds of the genera Egretta or Ardea that includes herons, many of which are...
Image: JJ Harrison, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

egret (plural egrets)

  1. Any of various wading birds of the genera Egretta or Ardea that includes herons, many of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes during the breeding season.
    • Egrets picked their way through the grass, attentive and showy as fussy girlfriends at the cows' sides.2011, Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones, Bloomsbury (2017), page 64
  2. A plume or tuft of feathers worn as a part of a headdress, or anything imitating such an ornament.
    Synonyms:
    aigrette
  3. The flying feathery or hairy crown of seeds or achenes, such as the down of the thistle.
  4. (obsolete) The crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis)

egret meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam

egret in Hindi

Any of various wading birds of the genera Egretta or Ardea
बगुला bagulā

egret in Tamil

நமது பூமியில் காணப்படும் பறவைகளில், இது ஒரு சிறப்பு இனமாகும்

egret in Bengali

Any of various wading birds of the genera Egretta or Ardea
বক bok

egret in Malayalam

Any of various wading birds of the genera Egretta or Ardea
വെള്ളരിക്കൊക്ക് veḷḷarikkokkŭ, കൊക്ക് kokkŭ
More languagesFewer languages
egret in Assamese
বগলী bogoli, বগ bog
egret in Arabic
أَبُو قِرْدَان ʔabū qirdān
egret in Malay
bangau
egret in Persian
قار qâr
egret in Vietnamese
cò

Synonyms of egret

Forms of egret

pluralegrets

Origin of egret

From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman egret, aigrette (“egret”), from Old Occitan aigreta, diminutive of aigron (“heron”), from Medieval Latin hairo, from Frankish *haigro (“heron”). Cognate with Old High German heigaro (“heron”), Old English hrāgra (“heron”). Doublet of aigrette. More at heron.

Words formed from egret

Questions about egret

What does egret mean?
Egret means any of various wading birds of the genera Egretta or Ardea that includes herons, many of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes during the breeding season.
What is egret in Hindi?
Egret in Hindi is बगुला (bagulā). See Egret meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is egret?
Egret is a noun.
How do you pronounce egret?
Egret is pronounced /ˈiːɡɹɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of egret?
The plural of egret is egrets.

Words near egret in the dictionary

  1. egressive
  2. egressively
  3. egressives
  4. egressor
  5. egressors
  6. egret
  7. egretlike
  8. egretries
  9. egretry
  10. egrets
  11. egrette

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: egret (page history and authors); egret (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-egret.wav.

Cite this entry: “egret.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/egret. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.