Meaning & use
pelican
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A large water bird with a long bill and a big pouch underneath it for catching fish.
Grammar: Countable: one pelican, two pelicans; use a/a before it.
Patterns
- a flock of pelicans
- a pelican catches fish
A pelican glided low over the water and scooped up a fish.
We watched pelicans resting on the rocks near the harbor.
The pelican's pouch stretched wide as it swallowed its catch.
nouncountableBritish
A style of large hat or sleeve shaped like the bird, or a type of crossing for pedestrians.
Grammar: Used mainly in fixed compounds such as 'pelican crossing'; not usually used alone this way.
Patterns
- a pelican crossing
Press the button at the pelican crossing and wait for the green figure.
She wore a wide pelican hat that shaded her whole face.
Word forms
| plural | pelicans |
|---|
Common combinations
- a pelican crossing
- The school is right next to a pelican crossing, so children can cross safely.
- a flock of pelicans
- A flock of pelicans flew in a line above the bay.
- a pelican's pouch
- The pelican's pouch can hold several liters of water.
- white pelican
- The American white pelican is one of the largest birds in North America.
Synonyms and how they differ
- stork
- A stork is also a big fish-eating bird with long legs, but it has a long straight beak and no pouch.
- seabird
- Seabird is a general word for any bird that lives near the sea; pelican names one specific kind.
Word family
- pelican noun
- The only common member of this family; the adjective 'pelican-like' is rare and descriptive.
Commonly confused: pelican or penguin? pelican or pelican?
pelican vs penguin
Penguins are black-and-white birds that swim but cannot fly, while pelicans fly and have a huge throat pouch.
pelican vs pelican
This is a common misspelling; the correct spelling has one 'l' and ends in '-can'.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'pelican' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Pelican' is a large water bird with a pouch under its bill, so sentence 2 fits. Sentence 1 is wrong because pelicans are not usually described as diving for fish like that; sentence 3 confuses it with a dog; sentence 4 is nonsense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pelican”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.