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Penguin vs Auk - What's the difference?

penguin | auk |

As nouns the difference between penguin and auk

is that penguin is any of several flightless sea birds, of order Sphenisciformes, found in the Southern Hemisphere; marked by their usual upright stance, walking on short legs, and (generally) their stark black and white plumage while auk is any of several species of Arctic sea birds of the family Alcidae.

penguin

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Any of several flightless sea birds, of order Sphenisciformes , found in the Southern Hemisphere; marked by their usual upright stance, walking on short legs, and (generally) their stark black and white plumage.
  • * 1638 , (Thomas Herbert), Some Yeares Travels , I:
  • Here are also birds cal'd Pen-gwins'' (white-head in ''Welch ) like Pigmies walking upright, their finns or wings hanging very orderly downe like sleeves [...].
  • (slang) A nun (because of the black and white habit).
  • (juggling) A type of catch where the palm of the hand is facing towards the leg with the arm stretched downward, resembling the flipper of a penguin.
  • (botany) A spiny bromeliad with egg-shaped fleshy fruit, .
  • Derived terms

    * Adelie penguin * African penguin * Chatham Island penguin * chinstrap penguin * crested penguin * emperor penguin * erect-crested penguin * fairy penguin * Fiordland penguin * Galapagos penguin * gentoo penguin * Humboldt penguin * jackass penguin * king penguin * little penguin * macaroni penguin * Magellanic penguin * penguinery * Ridgen's penguin * rockhopper penguin * royal penguin * Snares penguin * white-flippered penguin * yellow-eyed penguin

    References

    auk

    English

    Alternative forms

    *

    Noun

    (wikipedia auk) (en noun)
  • Any of several species of Arctic sea birds of the family Alcidae .
  • Synonyms

    * alcid