Word.ws English Dictionary

turkey

Syllables: turk·ey/ˈtɜːki//ˈtɝki/

turkey noun: the guinea fowl (family Numididae).

Noun (1)

turkey (plural turkeys or (obsolete) turkies)

  1. (countable, obsolete, originally) The guinea fowl (family Numididae).
  2. (countable) A wild turkey of Meleagris gallopavo.
  3. (countable) A domesticated bird of Meleagris gallopavo domesticus.
    • It was a Turkey! He never could have stood upon his legs, that bird. He would have snapped 'em short off in a minute, like sticks of sealing-wax.1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Five. The End of It.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 157
  4. (uncountable) The flesh or meat of this bird eaten as food.
    • All week after Thanksgiving, I had turkey sandwiches for lunch.
  5. (countable) With a distinguishing word: a bird resembling the Meleagris gallopavo (for example, the brush turkey or bush turkey (Alectura lathami), and the water turkey (Anhinga anhinga)).
  6. (countable) An act of throwing three strikes in a row.
  7. (countable, derogatory, slang) A patient feigning symptoms; a person faking illness or injury; a malingerer.
    • Mumford (1970) noted that the terms ‘crock’, ‘gomer’, and ‘turkey’, were sometimes utilized by interns to designate different types of undesirable patients, and sometimes used synonymously.[1976, Stephen Charles Frankel, Emergency Medical Care in an Urban Area (Ph.D. dissertation in Anthropology), Berkeley, Calif.: University of California, Berkeley, →OCLC, page 118
  8. (Australia, US, countable, dated, slang) A pack carried by a lumberman; a bindle; also, a large travel bag, a suitcase.
  9. (US, countable, slang) A failure.
    • That film was a turkey.
    • And despite the gross incompetence of Hemmings' direction, the ludicrous script, and the heavy-handed acting, there remains a stellar reason to see and enjoy Just a Gigolo: David Bowie. David Bowie is a great actor, and not even this turkey can obscure that fact.1981 August 8, Rob Schmieder, “Starring Bowie and Berlin”, in Gay Community News, page 11
    Synonyms:
    flop
  10. (US, countable, derogatory, mildly, slang, usually) A foolish or inept person.
    • The turkey cut in front of me and then berated me for running into him.
  11. (derogatory, slang, African-American Vernacular, Baltimore) A prostitute.
    • Shorty think she slick, but everybody know she a turkey.
    Synonyms:
    ho, hoe

Proper noun capitalized: Turkey

Turkey

  1. A country located in Eastern Thrace in Southeastern Europe and Anatolia in West Asia. Official name: Republic of Türkiye. Capital: Ankara.
    • One Terrorgram user livestreamed himself stabbing five people outside of a mosque in Turkey, she said, and a 19-year-old Slovakian man praised the group in a manifesto before killing two people at an LGBTQ bar in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.2024 September 9, Hannah Rabinowitz, “Alleged leaders of White supremacist group charged in effort to encourage terrorism and hate crimes”, in CNN
    • This isn’t the first time she has hidden a weight-loss management attempt from her husband. “I went to Turkey and had a gastric balloon, and I didn’t tell anyone, not even him,” she says.2025 May 11, Imogen West-Knights, “‘I lost so much weight, my husband thought I was terminally ill’: why do people lie about taking Ozempic?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
  2. (historical) Synonym of Ottoman Empire, a former empire in Europe, Asia, Africa. Capital: Istanbul.
    Synonyms:
    Ottoman Empire
  3. A city in Hall County, Texas, United States.

Noun (2) capitalized: Turkey

Turkey (uncountable)

  1. Synonym of Turkey red (“a vibrant red dye or its color”).
    Synonyms:
    Turkey red
  2. (obsolete) Synonym of Turkey blue (“a deep indigo dye or its color”).
    Synonyms:
    Turkey blue

Adjective capitalized: Turkey

Turkey (comparative more Turkey, superlative most Turkey)

  1. Synonym of Turkey red (“dyed or colored Turkey red”).
    Synonyms:
    Turkey red
  2. (obsolete) Synonym of Turkey blue (“dyed or colored Turkey blue”).
    Synonyms:
    Turkey blue

turkey meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

turkey in Hindi

bird in the genus Meleagris
पीरू pīrū

turkey in Tamil

bird in the genus Meleagris
வான்கோழி vāṉkōḻi

turkey in Marathi

टर्की, तुर्की

turkey in Urdu

bird in the genus Meleagris
پِیرُو pīrū, فِیل مُرْغ fīl murġ
More languagesFewer languages
turkey in Bengali
ট্যারকি পক্ষী, টার্কির মাংস
turkey in Telugu
టర్కీ కోడి ṭarkī kōḍi, సీమకోడి sīmakōḍi
turkey in Malayalam
കൽക്കം kalkkaṁ, വാങ്കോഴി vāṅkōḻi
turkey in Kannada
ಟರ್ಕಿ
turkey in Punjabi
ਤੁਰਕੀ, ਟਰਕੀ
turkey in Gujarati
ટર્કી, તુર્કી
turkey in Odia
ପେରୁ peru
turkey in Sinhala
කළුකුමා kaḷukumā
turkey in Assamese
পেৰু চৰাই peru sorai
turkey in Nepali
टर्की
turkey in Pashto
فيلمرغ filmórǧ
turkey in Tagalog
pabo
turkey in Arabic
دِيك رُومِيّ dīk rūmiyy, دِيك هِنْدِيّ dīk hindiyy, دِيكُ ٱلْحَبَش dīku l-ḥabaš
turkey in Malay
ayam belanda, kalkun
turkey in Indonesian
kalkun, ayam belanda
turkey in Persian
بوقلمون buqalamun, فیلمرغ fil-morġ
turkey in Thai
ไก่งวง gài-nguuang, งวง nguuang
turkey in Vietnamese
gà tây
turkey in Myanmar
ကြက်ဆင် krakhcang

Examples of turkey in a sentence

  • We cooked a big Christmas dinner with turkey, stuffing, Brussels, and parsnips.
  • I’m stuffed after having eaten all that turkey, mashed potatoes and delicious stuffing.
  • The farmer's son brought home a Thanksgiving turkey from the wild that he killed with his shotgun.

All 40 example sentences with turkey

Synonyms of turkey

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of turkey

Forms of turkey

Noun
pluralturkeys
plural (obsolete)turkies
alternative form (obsolete)turkie
Proper noun
alternative formTürkiye
alternative form (informal)Turkiye
Adjective
comparativemore Turkey
superlativemost Turkey

Plural of turkey: turkeys

Origin of turkey

Clipping of turkey-cock and turkey-hen, originally denoting the guinea fowl, an African bird that was first imported to Europe through Turkey, but there is some controversy over the origin. The word was then transferred to the superficially similar North American bird Meleagris gallopavo.

From Middle English Turkye, from Anglo-Norman Turkye, Medieval Latin Turcia, from Turcus (“Turk”), from Byzantine Greek Τοῦρκος (Toûrkos), from Classical Persian تُرْک (turk), from Middle Persian [script needed] (twlk' /⁠turk⁠/), from Old Turkic 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰜 (t²ẅr²ẅk²). By surface analysis, Turke + -y.

Words formed from turkey

Phrases with turkey

46 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with turkey

Questions about turkey

What does turkey mean?
Turkey means the guinea fowl (family Numididae).
What is turkey in Hindi?
Turkey in Hindi is पीरू (pīrū). See Turkey meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is turkey?
Turkey can be a noun, a proper noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce turkey?
Turkey is pronounced /ˈtɜːki/ (UK).
What is the plural of turkey?
The plural of turkey is turkeys.

Words near turkey in the dictionary

  1. Turkestan
  2. Turkestani
  3. Turkestanis
  4. turkestanite
  5. turkesterone
  6. turkey
  7. turkey bacon
  8. turkey bacons
  9. turkey berries
  10. turkey berry
  11. Turkey blue

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turkey (page history and authors); Turkey (page history and authors); turkey (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); turkey (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Turkey (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); turkey (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); turkey (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); turkey (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-turkey.ogg, En-au-turkey.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Soundguys-Turkey.wav.

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