Word.ws English Dictionary

screech owl

screech owl noun: any New World owl of genus Megascops.

screech owl: any New World owl of genus Megascops
Image: Wolfgang Wander, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

screech owl (plural screech owls)

  1. Any New World owl of genus Megascops.
    • The screech owls winter in the north and are distinctly farsighted in preparing for winter.1911, Anna Botsford Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study, 24th edition, published 1939, page 102
    • And I listened for a voice;— / But my heart was all I heard; / Not a screech-owl, not a loon, / Not a tree-toad said a word.1921, Edna St. Vincent Millay, “The Blue-Flag in the Bog”, in Second April
  2. (UK) A common barn owl, of species Tyto alba, found almost worldwide.
    • The poet Propertius refers to a philtre containing snake bones, a toad, and the feathers of a screech-owl.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 186
  3. A mistle thrush (Turdus viscivorus).

screech owl meaning in Tamil, Kannada and Vietnamese

screech owl in Tamil

சாக்குருவி, சாவுக்குருவி

screech owl in Kannada

ಆಡೇಲು

screech owl in Vietnamese

Megascops
cú mèo

Forms of screech owl

pluralscreech owls

Origin of screech owl

From the fact that these species are owls which emit screeching calls.

Words formed from screech owl

  • Balsas screech owl
  • bare-shanked screech owl
  • bearded screech owl
  • black-capped screech owl
  • Chocó screech owl
  • cinnamon screech owl
  • cloud-forest screech owl
  • eastern screech owl
  • foothill screech owl
  • Koepcke's screech owl
  • long-tufted screech owl
  • Middle American screech owl
  • Pacific screech owl
  • †Virgin Islands screech owl
  • Puerto Rican screech owl
  • rufescent screech owl
  • Santa Marta screech owl
  • tawny-bellied screech owl
  • tropical screech owl
  • vermiculated screech owl
  • western screech owl
  • West Peruvian screech owl
  • whiskered screech owl
  • white-throated screech owl
  • Yungas screech owl

Questions about screech owl

What does screech owl mean?
Screech owl means any New World owl of genus Megascops.
What is screech owl in Tamil?
Screech owl in Tamil is சாக்குருவி, சாவுக்குருவி. See Screech owl meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is screech owl?
Screech owl is a noun.
What is the plural of screech owl?
The plural of screech owl is screech owls.

Words near screech owl in the dictionary

  1. scree plots
  2. screech
  3. screech martin
  4. screech martins
  5. screech out
  6. screech owl
  7. screech owls
  8. screech thrush
  9. screech thrushes
  10. screech tunnel
  11. screech tunnels

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: screech owl (page history and authors); screech owl (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); screech owl (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-screech owl.wav.

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