wren

CEFRB1

/ɹɛn/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A very small brown bird with a short upright tail.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Any member of a mainly New World passerine bird family Troglodytidae; a true wren.

Examples

  • A wren was hopping about in the snow, looking for food.

  • St Paul's Cathedral was designed by Christopher Wren.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
2

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Any small bird of similar appearance to a true wren, such as a fairywren or scrubwren.

  2. Troglodytes troglodytes (Eurasian wren, type species and sole Old World species of the family Troglodytidae).

More examples

In context

  • The Wren church did not cross the Atlantic at once.

  • This engraving of a Wren design for the north elevation was made in 1702.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

I saw a tiny blank perched on the wooden fence and chirped very loudly.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English wrenne, wranne, from Old English wrenna, wrænna, werna, wærna, wrenne (“wren”), from Proto-West Germanic *wrandijō, from Proto-Germanic *wrandijô (“wren”). Cognate with Old Saxon wrendilo (“wren”), Old High German rento, rentilo (“wren”), Danish rindel (“wren”), Icelandic rindill (“wren”).