What does auk mean?
An auk is a compact, black-and-white seabird of the family Alcidae, found across the cold seas of the Northern Hemisphere. Built for swimming rather than flying, auks propel themselves underwater with their wings in pursuit of fish and crustaceans, much as penguins do in the Southern Hemisphere — though the two groups are not closely related. Familiar members of the family include the Atlantic puffin, the guillemots, the razorbill, and the small Arctic-breeding little auk. Auks gather in dense, noisy colonies on coastal cliffs and islands during the breeding season. The word also survives most famously in the name of the great auk, a large flightless species hunted to extinction by the mid-nineteenth century, making it one of the most cited examples of human-driven extinction. For readers, 'auk' is chiefly useful in natural-history writing and in these well-known compound names.
nounA short-winged diving seabird of the northern oceans, belonging to the family Alcidae, which includes puffins, guillemots, and razorbills.
- Any seabird of the family Alcidae, including puffins, guillemots, razorbills, and the extinct great auk.
"Puffins, razorbills, and other auks crowd the cliffs of the Farne Islands each summer to breed."
"Thousands of auks nest on the rocky ledges each spring."
"The little auk breeds in the high Arctic and winters far south along Atlantic coasts."
Regular plural; 'auk' is countable.
"The islands host vast colonies of breeding auks every summer."
The great auk was hunted to extinction in 1844 — the last pair killed while incubating a single egg on a rock off Iceland.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of auk
The word 'auk' entered English in the seventeenth century, borrowed from Norwegian 'alk', which descends from Old Norse 'álka'. It belongs to a small cluster of Scandinavian cognates — Danish 'alk', Swedish 'alka', Icelandic 'álka' — all referring to the same group of diving birds. The ultimate origin of the Norse word is uncertain, so no earlier root can be stated with confidence.
Related word forms
How auk is actually used
In everyday British usage, 'guillemot' or 'puffin' is more common than 'auk'; the word is most often encountered in ornithological contexts and in fixed names like 'great auk' and 'little auk'.
Easily confused with auk
A hawk is a bird of prey that hunts by sight from the air, while an auk is an aquatic diving seabird of the Northern Hemisphere.