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purple martin

purple martin noun: the largest North American swallow, Progne subis.

purple martin: the largest North American swallow, Progne subis
Image: JJ Cadiz, Cajay, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

purple martin (plural purple martins)

  1. The largest North American swallow, Progne subis.
    • This practice of harbouring and protecting the purple martin does not appear to be of European origin, as the aboriginal Americans had adopted a similar practice from time immemorial.1831, James Rennie, The Architecture of Birds, page 343
    • The American purple martin (Progne purpurea) is a visitor to North America, where it arrives in February at New Orleans, and Boston towards the end of April.1871, Samuel Orchart Beeton, Beeton's Dictionary of natural history, page 193

Forms of purple martin

pluralpurple martins

Questions about purple martin

What does purple martin mean?
Purple martin means the largest North American swallow, Progne subis.
What part of speech is purple martin?
Purple martin is a noun.
What is the plural of purple martin?
The plural of purple martin is purple martins.

Words near purple martin in the dictionary

  1. purple lettuce
  2. purple lettuces
  3. purple loosestrife
  4. purple loosestrifes
  5. purple marshlocks
  6. purple martin
  7. purple martins
  8. purple meadowrue
  9. purple milkweed
  10. purple milkweeds
  11. purple monkey dishwasher

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: purple martin (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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