How do you use the word "woodpecker" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "woodpecker": The woodpecker is feeding its mate. I hear a woodpecker.

Woodpecker Meaning

/ˈwʊdpɛkə/

Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounAny bird of species-rich family Picidae, with a strong pointed beak suitable for pecking holes in wood.

nounA Type 92 heavy machine gun.

Sentence Examples

The woodpecker is feeding its mate.

I hear a woodpecker.

The woodpecker is pecking the tree trunk vigorously.

CEFR Practice Quiz

The small ____ drilled into the tree trunk for hidden insects to eat.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

I could hear the sound of a ____ tapping on a tree earlier this morning in the local park today.

Word Origin & History

From wood + pecker. Compare Middle English wod spek (“woodpecker”), Middle English wodehake (“woodpecker”), Middle English wodewale (“woodpecker”). Displaced speight.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"On its summit towered aloft the fir tree which has often been referred to, like a mighty mast, full of woodpeckers' holes." — 1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 89:

"His skin was scarlet like the head of the green woodpecker." — 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 19:

"An adult female of this rare woodpecker was taken at 6,000 feet in April 1925 near Chingchuan in the forests of northern Szechuan." — 1928 August, Outram Bangs, James L. Peters, “Birds Collected by Dr. Joseph F. Rock in Western Kansu and Eastern Tibet”, in Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, volume LXVIII, number 7, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard College, →OCLC, page 333:

"Birdwatchers would enjoy a host of sparrows, a herd of swans, a descent of woodpeckers, a herd of wrens, and mutation of thrushes." — 1984, Virginia Wildlife, volume 45, Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries:

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