NYT Dictionary

FOWL

/faʊl/
NounVerbAdjectiveFOWLGrade 3

Accepted in official NYT Spelling Bee puzzle years: 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2025

Meaning

Any bird.

Etymology

Origin: Old English

From Middle English foul, foghel, fowel, fowele, from Old English fugol (“bird”), from Proto-West Germanic *fugl, from Proto-Germanic *fuglaz, dissimilated variant of *fluglaz (compare Old English flugol ‘fleeing’, Mercian fluglas heofun ‘birds of the air’), from *fleuganą (“to fly”). Cognate with West Frisian fûgel, Low German Vagel, Dutch vogel, German Vogel, Swedish fågel, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk fugl. Doublet of voël. More at fly.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms

fowlgamefowlpoultrywildfowlbirdbantybeatbiddybroilerbrooder

NYT Puzzle Appearances

Accepted in 5 recorded puzzles:

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