Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Murmuring; discontent; grumbling.
- n. In falconry, a gathering of starlings.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete The act of murmuring; a murmur.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a low continuous indistinct sound; often accompanied by movement of the lips without the production of articulate speech
Etymologies
- 1350-1400; Medieval Latin murmuratio. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Starlings are great virtuosi, wonderful mimics as well as splendid singers, and incorporate so many different sounds into their songs that a flock of them is called a murmuration.”
“A starling flock like this is called a murmuration, a word that perfectly describes the rustle of thousands of pairs of wings.”
“murmuration' make fantastical shapes as the flock wheel and dive through the air.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“Don Tapscott has written persuasively about the mechanism and culture of collaboration, and even produced a wonderful video on the notion of weak -- even unintelligent -- signals that result in glorious patterns of starling murmuration.”
The Huffington Post: Mehret Mandefro: The Revelation of Relevance
“I'd never heard of this phenomenon before--its called "murmuration.”
“The very sumptuousness of the renovated terminal, which will soon enough be filled with the brisk murmuration of passing lawyers, is a reminder that we live in an age when, as in medieval times, decoration is the prerogative of the rich.”
“You can find a video of a smaller murmuration in Brighton here.”
“The chalk-pit was full of sunshine and the murmuration of bees.”
“There seemed in all this white murmuration to be millions of tiny hands stretching out to me, millions of whispering voices, of wistful eyes.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘murmuration’.
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birds
birds with singular names from
at least 9 English dictionariesaasvogel, aberdevine, accentor, accipiter, aepyornis, agami, albatross, alcatras, alcid, alcidine, amadavat, amokura and 1056 more...
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Not 250 Spelling Words Again
Yet more spelling words for intermediate to advanced spellers.
kyoodle, heimin, feis, menarche, cordwainer, gherao, zythum, accidie, anastomosis, boustrophedon, oleum, penicillin and 238 more...
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mother nature
interesting acts of nature
( randomness, visual, setting, environment )firefly squid dro..., tornado, circumhorizontal arc, rainbow, waterfall, murmuration, hail, snow, glacier, volcano, giant redwoods, northern lights and 31 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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marginalia
exuberance, potsherds, earthbound, marcher, märchen, pastiche, transliterated, crocodile, oxbridge, jejune, publican, antithesis and 143 more...
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Q's words
sublimation, crepuscular, synesthesia, nave, murmuration, reve, reave, twain, asunder
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1402 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Words of Whimsy & Grace
abecedary, addendum, ampersand, anachronism, avuncular, balderdash, barnacle, befuddle, behemoth, bejeebers, blabbermouth, blatherskite and 465 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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ifjuly's list
favorite words. some are made up injokes between me and my husband or family.
skein, zaftig, july, bed, orifice, aesthete, ink, parce-que, desormais, cake, pusillanimous, pulse and 531 more...
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EN - funny (single) words
"Fornication" is not equal to "formication".
Words with funny meaning, spelling or both.barratry, bastinado, bezonian, bibcock, bibliobibuli, biffy, bodewash, boeotian, boondoggle, borborygmic, bosky, brobdingnagian and 729 more...
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Words/Phrases that have crossed my path
palanquin, rhapsodical, cacology, sylvan, veranda, lithe, spittoon, aptronym, retronym, purloin, blithe, diaeresis and 134 more...
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Obstinate Buffaloes
Words that you wouldn't think described collections of animals
sleuth, grist, obstinacy, kaleidoscope, quiver, business, earth, troubling, smack, surfeit, confusion, dissimulation and 19 more...
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Bushel
Heir to Beachcomb, words that I like.
http://wordie.org/lists/beachcombbushel, peck, kismet, hyperborean, votive, parsnip, murmuration, fleuron, gossamer, clementine, opal, dollop and 15 more...
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apopheniac's Words
empyrean, factitious, bedizened, bafflegab, auxetic, cucurbitaceous, tergiversate, apopheniac, picayune, refractory, supine, indite and 70 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for murmuration.
skipvia See murmuration of starlings Nov 15, 2007