shoebill
/ˈʃu.bɪl/
shoebill noun: balaeniceps rex, a tall wading bird related to the stork, native to tropical African swamps; the sole species of the family Balaenicipitidae.
Noun
shoebill (plural shoebills)
- Balaeniceps rex, a tall wading bird related to the stork, native to tropical African swamps; the sole species of the family Balaenicipitidae.
- The Shoebill is distinctive in many aspects of its biology, and is thus, we feel, most appropriately placed in its own family, the Balaenicipitidae (L. Buxton et al. 1978, Kahl 1979a). The fact that we have included it in this book, while excluding the Hamerkop, indicates that we believe the...1992, James Hancock, James A. Kushlan, M. Philip Kahl, Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World, published 2010, unnumbered page
- Nevertheless, Birdlife International recently classified it as near-globally threatened, and it is classed as CITES Appendix 2, which means that trade in shoebills, or their capture for any harmful activity, is forbidden by international law.2009, Philip Briggs, Janice Booth, Rwanda, 4th edition, Bradt Travel Guides, page 405
- Synonyms:
- whalehead
shoebill meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Assamese and Arabic
shoebill in Tamil
- wading bird
- காலணி-அலகு நாரை kālaṇi-alaku nārai
shoebill in Malayalam
- wading bird
- ഷൂബിൽ ṣūbil
shoebill in Assamese
- wading bird
- জোতাঠোঁটীয়া zütathü̃tia
shoebill in Arabic
- wading bird
- أبو مركوب 'abu markub
More languagesFewer languages
- shoebill in Thai
- นกกระสาปากพลั่ว nók grà-săa bpàak plûa
- shoebill in Vietnamese
- cò mỏ giày
Examples of shoebill in a sentence
- The Shoebill is distinctive in many aspects of its biology, and is thus, we feel, most appropriately placed in its own family, the Balaenicipitidae (L.1992, James Hancock, James A. Kushlan, M. Philip Kahl, Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World, published 2010, unnumbered page:
- The monstrous and awesome shoebill is possibly the most bizarre bird on the African continent.2014, Jamie Frater, Listverse.com's Epic Book of Mind-Boggling Lists, page 605:
Synonyms of shoebill
Forms of shoebill
| plural | shoebills |
|---|
Origin of shoebill
From shoe + bill.
Questions about shoebill
- What does shoebill mean?
- Shoebill means balaeniceps rex, a tall wading bird related to the stork, native to tropical African swamps; the sole species of the family Balaenicipitidae.
- What is shoebill in Tamil?
- Shoebill in Tamil is காலணி-அலகு நாரை (kālaṇi-alaku nārai). See Shoebill meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use shoebill in a sentence?
- The Shoebill is distinctive in many aspects of its biology, and is thus, we feel, most appropriately placed in its own family, the Balaenicipitidae (L.
- What part of speech is shoebill?
- Shoebill is a noun.
- How do you pronounce shoebill?
- Shoebill is pronounced /ˈʃu.bɪl/.
- What is the plural of shoebill?
- The plural of shoebill is shoebills.
Words near shoebill in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shoebill (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-shoebill.wav.
Cite this entry: “shoebill.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shoebill. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.