pelican
UK/ˈpɛl.ɪ.kən/
pelican noun: any of various seabirds of the family Pelecanidae, having a long bill with a distendable pouch.
Noun
pelican (plural pelicans)
- Any of various seabirds of the family Pelecanidae, having a long bill with a distendable pouch.
- The old have outlived that mental world we so misname in calling it a world of enjoyment;—they have outlived the feverish dreams which waste those keen hopes—the pelicans of the heart, feeding on the life-blood of their parent;—they have now no part in the excitement of success, whether in its...1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter III, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 54
- Pelicans fly below us with stiffly formal strokes, and gulls wheel and keen.1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter VIII, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 71
- A native or resident of the American state of Louisiana.
- A retort or still having a curved tube or tubes leading back from the head to the body for continuous condensation and redistillation.
- A set of forceps used to force overcrowded teeth apart.
- Synonyms:
- dental pelican
- A waterbomber.
- An ageing prostitute.
Proper noun capitalized: Pelican
Pelican
- A suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales.
- A rural locality in Western Downs Region, Queensland.
- A minor city on Chichagof Island, Alaska.
- An unincorporated community in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana.
- A township in Crow Wing County, Minnesota, named after Pelican Lake (Crow Wing County, Minnesota).
- A township in Otter Tail County, Minnesota, named after the Pelican River (Otter Tail River tributary).
- A town in Oneida County, Wisconsin, named after Pelican Lake (Oneida County, Wisconsin).
pelican meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
pelican in Hindi
- पेलिकन, पेलीकन
pelican in Tamil
- பெலிகன், பெலிக்கன்
pelican in Marathi
- pelican
- पेण peṇ
pelican in Urdu
- گگن بھیڑ
More languagesFewer languages
- pelican in Bengali
- জলচর পক্ষিবিশেষ
- pelican in Telugu
- పెలికన్, పెలికాన్
- pelican in Malayalam
- ഞാറ ñāṟa, കൊതുമ്പന്നം kotumpannaṁ
- pelican in Kannada
- ನೀರುಹಕ್ಕಿ, ನೀರ್ಗೋಳಿ, ಒಂದು ಜಾತಿಯ ಕೊಕ್ಕರೆ
- pelican in Punjabi
- ਪੈਲਿਕਾਨ pailikān
- pelican in Gujarati
- પેણ peṇ
- pelican in Odia
- ପେଲିକାନ୍, ପେଲିକାନ, ପେଲିକନ
- pelican in Assamese
- ভেলা bhela, ঢেঁৰা dhẽra
- pelican in Nepali
- पेलिकन, पेलिकान
- pelican in Tagalog
- pagala, pelikano
- pelican in Arabic
- بَجَع bajaʕ
- pelican in Malay
- burung undan
- pelican in Indonesian
- burung undan, pelikan
- pelican in Thai
- กระทุง grà-tung
- pelican in Vietnamese
- bồ nông
- pelican in Myanmar
- ငှက်ကြီးဝန်ပို hngakkri:wanpui
Examples of pelican in a sentence
- The shield depicts a pelican vulning herself.
- A scoop of pelicans gather in Brockliss Slough just below Genoa.
- TThe Egyptian goose (circled) was spotted in a scoop of pelicans.
Synonyms of pelican
Forms of pelican
| plural | pelicans |
|---|---|
| alternative form (archaic) | pelecan |
Origin of pelican
From Middle English pellican, pellicane, from Old English pellican (“pelican”), from Latin pelecānus, from Ancient Greek πελεκάν (pelekán), πέλεκυς (pélekus, “hatchet”).
Words formed from pelican
Phrases with pelican
Questions about pelican
- What does pelican mean?
- Pelican means any of various seabirds of the family Pelecanidae, having a long bill with a distendable pouch.
- What is pelican in Hindi?
- Pelican in Hindi is पेलिकन, पेलीकन. See Pelican meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is pelican?
- Pelican can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce pelican?
- Pelican is pronounced /ˈpɛl.ɪ.kən/ (UK).
- What is the plural of pelican?
- The plural of pelican is pelicans.
Words near pelican in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pelican (page history and authors); Pelican (page history and authors); pelican (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pelican (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); पेण (Marathi) (page history and authors); pelican (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pelican (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pelican (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); കൊതുമ്പന്നം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); pelican (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਪੈਲਿਕਾਨ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); pelican (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pelican (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-pelican.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pelican.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pelican. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.