auk
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auk
- /ɔːk/ Northern England, UK, Wales
- /oːk/ Australia, British, New Zealand
- /ɔk/ US
- /ɑk/ US, cot caught merger
- /ɔk/ Scotland
Sounds like awk, orc (non-rhotic) · Rhymes with -ɔːk
Where it comes from
From Icelandic álka, from Old Norse alka (“auk”), from Proto-Germanic *alkǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁el- (“a kind of bird”). Cognate with Swedish alka (“auk”), Norwegian and Danish alke (“auk”), Swedish dialectal alla (“long-tailed duck”) (Clangula hyemalis, syn. Fuligula glacialis), Latin olor (“swan”), Ancient Greek ἐλέα (eléa, “marsh-bird”), Welsh alarch (“swan”).
noun auks · awk · alk
-
Any of several species of Arctic sea birds of the family Alcidae.
Further afield, these auks are also in dire straits: Norway has seen vertiginous crashes, with hundreds of thousands of adult puffins in the once-teeming colony of Røst struggling to fledge any chicks in recent years.
Similar: alcid
Translations
Talk about this word "auk." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/auk. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. auk. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/auk "auk." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/auk.Cite this
@misc{auk_2026,
title = {auk},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/auk},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
