Meaning & use
beak
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Meanings
nouncountable
The hard, pointed part of a bird's mouth, used for eating and other tasks.
Grammar: Countable: a beak, two beaks.
Patterns
- a bird's beak
- with its beak
- peck with a beak
The bird used its beak to crack the seed.
A toucan has a very large, colorful beak.
The mother bird cleaned her chicks with her beak.
nouncountable
A hard, pointed part of the mouth of some other animals, such as turtles or squid.
Grammar: Used for animals that have a similar mouthpart.
Patterns
- a turtle's beak
Turtles have a sharp beak instead of teeth.
The squid grabbed the fish with its beak.
Word forms
| plural | beaks |
|---|
Common combinations
- sharp beak
- The eagle has a sharp beak for tearing meat.
- bird's beak
- The bird's beak was covered in mud.
- use its beak
- The parrot used its beak to climb the cage.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bill
- Often used for birds with flatter mouthparts, like ducks, while 'beak' is more general.
Word family
- beaked adjective
- Having a beak, often used in descriptions: a long-beaked bird.
Commonly confused: beak or bill?
beak vs bill
In everyday speech, 'bill' and 'beak' are often interchangeable, but 'bill' is more common for ducks and similar birds.
Practice
The bird picked up the worm with its ______.
Choose one answer.
The singular 'beak' is correct because it refers to one bird's mouthpart. 'Beaks' is plural and would not match 'its'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “beak”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.