Word.ws English Dictionary

great auk

great auk noun: a large extinct auk (†Pinguinus impennis).

Noun

great auk (plural great auks)

  1. A large extinct auk (†Pinguinus impennis).
    • The last great auk ever seen in the UK was captured off Stac an Armin, St Kilda, in 1840.2020, Tim Ecott, The Land of Maybe, Short Books, published 2021, page 82
    Synonyms:
    garefowl, woggin

Synonyms of great auk

Forms of great auk

pluralgreat auks

Origin of great auk

Probably from an early Scandinavian word (compare Old (West) Norse álka, Norwegian alke (“razorbill”)).

Questions about great auk

What does great auk mean?
Great auk means a large extinct auk (†Pinguinus impennis).
What part of speech is great auk?
Great auk is a noun.
What is the plural of great auk?
The plural of great auk is great auks.

Words near great auk in the dictionary

  1. great artery
  2. Great Artesian Basin
  3. Great Assassin
  4. Great Assize
  5. Great Attractor
  6. great auk
  7. great auks
  8. great aunt
  9. great aunts
  10. Great Australian Bight
  11. Great Awakening

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: great auk (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:

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