Word.ws English Dictionary

halcyons

halcyons is the plural of halcyon.

Meaning of halcyon

Noun

halcyon (plural halcyons)

  1. (poetic) A kingfisher whose nesting by the sea was said, in classical mythology, to cause the Gods to restrain the wind and waves.
    • the Halcyon bird, or as some call it Alcedo or Kings-fisher, exceeds all mens conceit. […] Gods decree hath been, that all the watrie wildernesse should be quiet and made calme, without raine, wind, or tempest, during the time the Halcyon sitteth and bringeth forth her young-ones […]1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
    1. (poetic) The dead body of such a bird, said in Tudor times to act as a weather vane when hung from a beam.
      • But novv hovv ſtands the vvind? / Into vvhat corner peeres my Halcions bill?c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published...
  2. A tropical kingfisher of the genus Halcyon, such as the sacred kingfisher (Halcyon sancta) of Australia.

See all 5 meanings of halcyon

Questions about halcyons

What is halcyons the plural of?
Halcyons is the plural of halcyon.

Words near halcyons in the dictionary

  1. halcyonian
  2. halcyonid
  3. halcyonids
  4. halcyonoid
  5. halcyonoids
  6. halcyons
  7. Haldane
  8. Haldane effect
  9. Haldane effects
  10. Haldane principle
  11. Haldane's law

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: halcyons (page history and authors); halcyon (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: “halcyons.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/halcyons. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.