Word.ws English Dictionary

wagtail

wagtail noun: any of various small passerine birds, principally of genus Motacilla, of the Old World, notable for their long tails. Also the ellipsis of wagtail platy.

wagtail: any of various small passerine birds, principally of genus Motacilla, of the Old World, notable for...
Image: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

wagtail (plural wagtails)

  1. Any of various small passerine birds, principally of genus Motacilla, of the Old World, notable for their long tails.

Also used as

wagtail is also the ellipsis of wagtail platy.

wagtail meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and Persian

wagtail in Hindi

various small passerine birds
खंजन khañjan, तुलिका tulikā

wagtail in Urdu

various small passerine birds
مَدِیرا madīrā

wagtail in Arabic

various small passerine birds
ذُعْرَة ḏuʕra, هَزَّاز الذَّنَب hazzāz aḏ-ḏanab, أَبُو َالْفَصَاد ʔabū ālfaṣād

wagtail in Persian

various small passerine birds
دمجنبانک dom-jonbânak, سوسلنگ sūseleng
More languagesFewer languages
wagtail in Vietnamese
chìa vôi

Forms of wagtail

pluralwagtails

Origin of wagtail

From a partial suppletion of Middle English wagstert (literally “wag-tail”), equivalent to wag + tail.

Words formed from wagtail

Phrases with wagtail

2 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about wagtail

What does wagtail mean?
Wagtail means any of various small passerine birds, principally of genus Motacilla, of the Old World, notable for their long tails.
What is wagtail in Hindi?
Wagtail in Hindi is खंजन (khañjan), तुलिका (tulikā). See Wagtail meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is wagtail?
Wagtail is a noun.
What is the plural of wagtail?
The plural of wagtail is wagtails.

Words near wagtail in the dictionary

  1. Wagstaff
  2. Wagstaffe
  3. Wagstaffs
  4. wagster
  5. wagsters
  6. wagtail
  7. wagtail-tyrant
  8. wagtails
  9. Wague
  10. Waguespack
  11. Waguespacks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wagtail (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-wagtail.ogg.

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