overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

starling.

A family, Sturnidae, of passerine birds.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈstɑːlɪŋ/Received-Pronunciation[ˈstɑːlɪŋ]Received-Pronunciation/ˈstɑɹlɪŋ/General-American[ˈstɑɹlɪŋ]General-American
  1. A family, Sturnidae, of passerine birds.

  2. A family, Sturnidae, of passerine birds. The common starling, Sturnus vulgaris, which has dark, iridescent plumage.

  3. A fish, rock trout (Hexagrammos spp.), of the North Pacific, especially, Hexagrammos decagrammus, found in US waters.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ster- Proto-Indo-European *ster-os Proto-Germanic *staraz Proto-West Germanic *star Old English stær Proto-Indo-European *-lósder. Proto-Germanic *-ilaz Proto-Indo-European *-n̥kʷo-der.? Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos Proto-Germanic *-īnaz Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz ? Proto-Germanic *-ingaz Proto-Germanic *-ilingaz Proto-West Germanic *-ling Old English -ling Old English stærling Middle English starling English starling From Middle English starling, sterling, sterlinge, from Old English stærling, from stær (“starling”) + -ling (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Middle Dutch sterlinck (“starling”).

noun/ˈstɑːlɪŋ/Received-Pronunciation[ˈstɑːlɪŋ]Received-Pronunciation/ˈstɑɹlɪŋ/General-American[ˈstɑɹlɪŋ]General-American
  1. An enclosure like a coffer-dam, formed of piles driven closely together before any structure or work, as a protection against the wash of waves, commonly used to protect the piers of a bridge.

  2. One of the piles used in forming such a breakwater.

Where this word comes from

Apparently a variant of staddling (although difficult to account for), or perhaps an alteration by association with another (unidentified) word.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

starling has 8 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

starling studiostarling workshello, starling

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.