sparrow

UK/ˈspæɹəʊ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈspaɹəw/

sparrow noun: the house sparrow, Passer domesticus; a small bird with a short bill, and brown, white and gray feathers.

Image: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

sparrow (plural sparrows)

The house sparrow, Passer domesticus; a small bird with a short bill, and brown, white and gray feathers.
- Man progresses generally, not both legs at once like a sparrow, but by putting one leg forward first, and then the other.1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 192
- In a poem by Sappho, Aphrodite is represented as riding in a car drawn by sparrows.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 87
Synonyms:

spadger, spoggy, spuggy
A member of the family Passeridae, comprising small Old World songbirds.
A member of the family Passerellidae (or Emberizidae, under classification systems that subsume the New World sparrows under Emberizidae), comprising small New World songbirds.
Generically, any small, nondescript bird.
(London, UK) A quick-witted, lively person.
- cockney sparrow
- I take it there 's scarcely a happier fellow alive than your honest town-bred smoke-dried cockney sparrow.1878, Charles Henry Ross, Ally Sloper's guide to the Paris exhibition, page 54

Proper noun capitalized: Sparrow

Sparrow

A surname.

sparrow meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sparrow in Hindi

bird of the family Passeridae: गौरैया gauraiyā, गौरिया gauriyā

sparrow in Tamil

bird of the family Passeridae: சிட்டுக்குருவி ciṭṭukkuruvi, குருவி kuruvi

sparrow in Marathi

bird of the family Passeridae: चिमणी cimṇī, चिमणा cimṇā

sparrow in Urdu

bird of the family Passeridae: گورییا gauraiyā

More languagesFewer languages

sparrow in Bengali: চড়ুই coṛui, চড়াই coṛai
sparrow in Telugu: పిచ్చుక piccuka
sparrow in Malayalam: കുരുവി kuruvi
sparrow in Kannada: ಗುಬ್ಬಚ್ಚಿ, ಗುಬ್ಬಿ, ಗುಬ್ಬಿಹಕ್ಕಿ, ಗುಬ್ಬಕ್ಕಿ
sparrow in Punjabi: ਚਿੜੀ ciṛī
sparrow in Gujarati: ચકલી caklī
sparrow in Odia: ଚଟିଆ caṭiā
sparrow in Sanskrit: चटक caṭaka
sparrow in Assamese: ঘৰচিৰিকা ghorsirika, ঘনচিৰিকা ghonsirika, ঘৰচৰাই ghorsorai
sparrow in Nepali: भँगेरा bhãgerā
sparrow in Tagalog: pipit
sparrow in Arabic: عَصْفُور ʕaṣfūr, عُصْفُور ʕuṣfūr
sparrow in Malay: pipit
sparrow in Indonesian: burung gereja
sparrow in Persian: گنجشک gonješk, ملیچ melič/malič
sparrow in Thai: กระจอก grà-jɔ̀ɔk
sparrow in Vietnamese: sẻ
sparrow in Myanmar: စာ ca
Kashmiri: کٲنٛتُر kạ̄ntur, کانٛتُر kāntur, ژٔر ċạr

Examples of sparrow in a sentence

The sparrow I saw was rufous above and off-white below.
The animal shelter has a flightless sparrow named Shiny, who seems to make up for his disability by being an avid runner.
History is littered with our indifference—dodo birds, great auks, 24-rayed sunstars, dusky seaside sparrows, Bernard’s wolves.

All 31 example sentences with sparrow

Synonyms of sparrow

Forms of sparrow

plural	sparrows

Plural of sparrow: sparrows

Origin of sparrow

From Middle English sparewe, sparowe, sparu, sparwe, spearewe, sperrewe, from Old English spearwa, from Proto-West Germanic *sparwō, from Proto-Germanic *sparwô, from Proto-Indo-European *spḗr (“sparrow”). Cognates Cognate with Yola sparrowe (“sparrow”), North Frisian sparag, spåri (“sparrow”), Saterland Frisian Spräie (“sparrow”), Alemannic German and Luxembourgish Spatz (“sparrow”), Dutch spreeuw (“starling”), German Spatz, Sperling (“sparrow”), Vilamovian śpielik, śpjelik, śpjeliḱ (“sparrow”), Yiddish שפּערל (shperl, “sparrow”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål spurv (“sparrow”), Faroese spurvur (“sparrow”), Norwegian Nynorsk sporv (“sparrow”), Swedish sparv (“sparrow”), Gothic 𐍃𐍀𐌰𐍂𐍅𐌰 (sparwa, “sparrow”); also Latin parra (“bird of ill omen”), Ancient Greek ψάρ (psár), ψήρ (psḗr, “starling”).

From Middle English Sparow.

Words formed from sparrow

Phrases with sparrow

44 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with sparrow

Questions about sparrow

What does sparrow mean?: Sparrow means the house sparrow, Passer domesticus; a small bird with a short bill, and brown, white and gray feathers.
What is sparrow in Hindi?: Sparrow in Hindi is गौरैया (gauraiyā), गौरिया (gauriyā). See Sparrow meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is sparrow?: Sparrow can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce sparrow?: Sparrow is pronounced /ˈspæɹəʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of sparrow?: The plural of sparrow is sparrows.

Words near sparrow in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: sparrow (page history and authors); Sparrow (page history and authors); sparrow (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਚਿੜੀ (Punjabi) (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: En-us-ne-sparrow.ogg.

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