rooster
UK/ˈɹuːstə/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈɹʉwstə/
rooster noun: a male domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) or other gallinaceous bird.
Noun
rooster (countable and uncountable, plural roosters)
- A male domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) or other gallinaceous bird.
- Their other dish […] contain'd a number of roast fowls—half a dozen, we suppose, & all roosters at this season no doubt.1772 March 14, A.G. Winslow, Diary
- The produce of two hens and a cock, or rooster, as the Yankees term that bird.1836, Catharine Parr Traill, The Backwoods of Canada, page 308
- Synonyms:
- cock
- A bird or bat which roosts or is roosting.
- The more leisured flight of the roosters [sc. starlings] was in contrast to the steady procession of the migrants.1949, British Birds, 42, p. 323
- Ground roosters like Northern Harriers may be subject to predation by Great-horned Owls […] but still larger perchers like herons and Ospreys use snags or posts in conspicuous places but are large enough to escape aerial predators.1999, Milton W. Weller, Wetland Birds: Habitat Resources and Conservation Implications
- An informer.
- Synonyms:
- informant
- A violent or disorderly person.
- Synonyms:
- brawler
- A powerful, prideful, or pompous person.
- Synonyms:
- important person, cock of the walk, cock of the roost
- A man.
- Synonyms:
- man
- A wild violet, when used in a children's game based on cockfighting.
- In April they played Hens and Roosters, yoking their wild white and blue violets to see which would get its head pulled off.1946, Conrad Richter, The Fields, page 231
- Legislation solely devised to benefit the legislators proposing it.
- American demoralisation... has carried rooster into the halls of republican legislation, where it indicates a bill or proposed law which will remunerate the legislators.1869 July, Southern Review, page 54
Proper noun capitalized: Rooster
Rooster
- The tenth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar.
rooster meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
rooster in Hindi
- male chicken; male gallinaceous bird
- मुर्ग़ा murġā, मुरगा murgā, कुक्कुट kukkuṭ
rooster in Tamil
- male chicken; male gallinaceous bird
- சேவல் cēval
rooster in Marathi
- male chicken; male gallinaceous bird
- कोंबडा kombḍā
rooster in Urdu
- male chicken; male gallinaceous bird
- مرغا murġā, خروس xurūs
More languagesFewer languages
- rooster in Telugu
- రూస్టర్ rūsṭar, కోడిపుంజు kōḍipuñju
- rooster in Malayalam
- പൂവങ്കോഴി pūvaṅkōḻi
- rooster in Gujarati
- કૂકડો kūkḍo
- rooster in Odia
- ଗଞ୍ଜା gañjā
- rooster in Sanskrit
- कुक्कुट kukkuṭa
- rooster in Nepali
- भाले bhale
- rooster in Pashto
- چرګ čərg
- rooster in Tagalog
- rooster, tandang
- rooster in Arabic
- دِيك dīk
- rooster in Malay
- ayam jantan
- rooster in Indonesian
- jago, ayam jantan, ayam jago
- rooster in Persian
- خروس xorus
- rooster in Thai
- ไก่ตัวผู้ gài-dtuua-pûu
- rooster in Vietnamese
- gà trống, con gà trống
- rooster in Myanmar
- ကြက်ဖ krakhpa.
- Kashmiri
- کۄکُر kọkur
Examples of rooster in a sentence
- He strutted like a banty rooster.
- It was the Spanish rooster, the bird that produced coq feathers, that sacrificed the most plumage.
- Rooster tasted it with a spoon and said it was an Indian dish called sofky.
Synonyms of rooster
- cock
- informant
- brawler
- important person
- cock of the walk
- cock of the roost
- man
Forms of rooster
| plural | roosters |
|---|---|
| alternative form | roo |
Origin of rooster
From roost + -er. In the regions where it is used, displaced cock through taboo avoidance. Compare typologically Russian насе́дка (nasédka) (akin to наси́живать (nasíživatʹ), also akin to насе́ст (nasést)).
Words formed from rooster
Phrases with rooster
Questions about rooster
- What does rooster mean?
- Rooster means a male domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) or other gallinaceous bird.
- What is rooster in Hindi?
- Rooster in Hindi is मुर्ग़ा (murġā), मुरगा (murgā), कुक्कुट (kukkuṭ). See Rooster meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is rooster?
- Rooster can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce rooster?
- Rooster is pronounced /ˈɹuːstə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of rooster?
- The plural of rooster is roosters.
Words near rooster in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: rooster (page history and authors); Rooster (page history and authors); چرګ (Pashto) (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: en-us-rooster.ogg, en-au-rooster.ogg.
Cite this entry: “rooster.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rooster. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.