Word.ws English Dictionary

talon

/ˈtælən/

talon noun: a sharp, hooked claw of a bird of prey or other predatory animal.

Noun

talon (plural talons)

  1. A sharp, hooked claw of a bird of prey or other predatory animal.
    • and now doth gaſtly death
      With greedie talients gripe my bleeding hart,
      And like a Harpye tires on my life.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
    • It may be tried also whether birds may not have something done to them when they are young , whereby they may be made to have greater or longer bills , or greater and longer talons ?1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “VIII. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for...
    Synonyms:
    fang
  2. One of certain small prominences on the hind part of the face of an elephant's tooth.
  3. A kind of moulding, concave at the bottom and convex at the top; an ogee. (When the concave part is at the top, it is called an inverted talon.)
  4. The shoulder of the bolt of a lock on which the key acts to shoot the bolt.
    • The locks were constructed with two or three levers, and sometimes with a common tumbler. The talon is the secret; for after locking the bolt out, the key is turned round again quietly to catch the nib and force the talon up1856, George Price, A Treatise on Fire and Thief-proof Depositories, and Locks
  5. The remaining stock of undealt cards.
  6. (historical) A document that could be detached and presented in exchange for a block of further coupons on a bond, when the original block had been used up.

Proper noun capitalized: Talon

Talon

  1. A surname transferred from the nickname.
  2. A male given name from English of modern usage.
    • 'Very well, I shall call you Talon from now on. What does the name mean, in the tongue of the small folk?' 'It is a claw, like that found on a hawk,' Talon said.2010, David Farland, The Wyrmling Horde: Book 7 of the Runelords, Hachette UK, →ISBN

talon meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

talon in Hindi

hooked claw
पंजा pañjā, नख nakh, नाख़ून nāxūn

talon in Tamil

hooked claw
உகிர் ukir

talon in Marathi

hooked claw
नख nakh

talon in Urdu

چنگل پنجہ, شط
More languagesFewer languages
talon in Malayalam
പക്ഷിനഖം, ചീട്ടുകളി, താക്കോൽ നാളി
talon in Sanskrit
नख nakha
talon in Arabic
مِخْلَب miḵlab
talon in Persian
چنگال čangâl, چنگ čang
talon in Thai
เล็บ lép, กรงเล็บ grong-lép
talon in Myanmar
လက်သည်း laksany:

Examples of talon in a sentence

  • The animal fell backward, its talons in a deathlock on the sill of the empty window frame.
  • Dens in dente, peg-shaped lateral incisors, microdontia, megadontia, fusion, gemination and connation, talon cusp, taurodontism, etc.
  • I'm not exactly defenseless myself." From my paddy-paw a talon popped, curved like a sickle moon.

All 10 example sentences with talon

Synonyms of talon

Forms of talon

pluraltalons

Plural of talon: talons

Origin of talon

From Middle English talon, taloun, from Old French talon (“heel, spur”), from Medieval Latin tālōnem, from Proto-Romance *tālōnis, from Latin tālus (“ankle”).

The surname derives from Old French talon (“heel”) as a nickname for a deformity, or for a swift runner; also diminutive of Talbot and Talleyrand. The modern given name is associated with English talon.

Words formed from talon

Words that rhyme with talon

Questions about talon

What does talon mean?
Talon means a sharp, hooked claw of a bird of prey or other predatory animal.
What is talon in Hindi?
Talon in Hindi is पंजा (pañjā), नख (nakh), नाख़ून (nāxūn). See Talon meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is talon?
Talon can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce talon?
Talon is pronounced /ˈtælən/.
What is the plural of talon?
The plural of talon is talons.

Words near talon in the dictionary

  1. Taloga
  2. Talogtog
  3. Talolong
  4. talometatarsal
  5. Talomo
  6. talon
  7. talonas
  8. talonavicular
  9. taloned
  10. talonic
  11. talonic acid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: talon (page history and authors); Talon (page history and authors); talon (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); talon (Malayalam 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: En-us-talon.ogg.

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