scops owl

scops owl noun: a small European migratory owl, Otus scops, that winters in sub-Saharran Africa.

Image: Miloš Popović, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

scops owl (plural scops owls)

A small European migratory owl, Otus scops, that winters in sub-Saharran Africa.

Synonyms:

European scops owl, Eurasian scops owl, Old World scops owl
Any owl of the Old World genus Otus.

plural	scops owls
alternative form	scops-owl

From Latin scops, from Ancient Greek σκώψ (skṓps, “a type of small owl”), from σκοπός (skopós, “watcher”), from σκέπτομαι (sképtomai, “to look at”).

What does scops owl mean?: Scops owl means a small European migratory owl, Otus scops, that winters in sub-Saharran Africa.
What part of speech is scops owl?: Scops owl is a noun.
What is the plural of scops owl?: The plural of scops owl is scops owls.

Adapted from Wiktionary: scops owl (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-scops owl.wav.

Cite this entry: “scops owl.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scops_owl. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.