Library / English Dictionary

WREN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of several small active brown birds of the northern hemisphere with short upright tails; they feed on insects

Synonyms:

jenny wren; wren

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("wren" is a kind of...):

passeriform bird; passerine (perching birds mostly small and living near the ground with feet having 4 toes arranged to allow for gripping the perch; most are songbirds; hatchlings are helpless)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wren"):

Troglodytes troglodytes; winter wren (small wren of coniferous forests of northern hemisphere)

house wren; Troglodytes aedon (common American wren that nests around houses)

marsh wren (a wren of the genus Cistothorus that frequents marshes)

rock wren; Salpinctes obsoletus (wren inhabiting badlands and mesa country of western United States and Mexico)

Carolina wren; Thryothorus ludovicianus (large United States wren with a musical call)

cactus wren (large harsh-voiced American wren of arid regions of the United States southwest and Mexico)

Holonyms ("wren" is a member of...):

family Troglodytidae; Troglodytidae (wrens)

Sense 2

Meaning:

English architect who designed more than fifty London churches (1632-1723)

Synonyms:

Sir Christopher Wren; Wren

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

architect; designer (someone who creates plans to be used in making something (such as buildings))

Credits

 Context examples: 

Then the willow-wren flew to the bear’s hole and cried: “Growler, you are to come to the nest to my children, and beg their pardon, or else every rib of your body shall be broken.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The young willow-wrens, however, continued to cry and scream, and when their parents again brought food they said: We will not so much as touch one fly’s leg, no, not if we were dying of hunger, until you have settled whether we are respectable children or not; the bear has been here and has insulted us!

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The willow-wren with his army also came flying through the air with such a humming, and whirring, and swarming that every one was uneasy and afraid, and on both sides they advanced against each other.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)