Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several dark-colored diving ducks of the genera Oidemia and Melanitta, of northern coastal areas. Also called coot.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A large sea-duck of the genus Œdemia, belonging to the subfamily Fuligulinæ, having in the male the plumage black and a red gibbosity of the bill, as Œdemia nigra of Europe. The corresponding American species is Œ. americana. The name is extended to the velvet or white-winged scoter, Œ. fusca or Œ. velvetina, and to the surf-scoter, Œ. perspicillata. In the United States all three species are commonly called
coot , or sea-coot, with various qualifying terms and some very fanciful names. SeeŒdemia , and cut underPelionetta .
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of northern sea ducks of the genus Oidemia.
WordNet 3.0
- n. large black diving duck of northern parts of the northern hemisphere
Etymologies
- Origin uncertain. (Wiktionary)
- Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Just offshore some mallard and pintail – birds usually found on fresh water – were bobbing up and down on the waves, along with two truly marine ducks, an eider and a common scoter.”
“But the duck's name is scoter, not scooter as our solution said 1 August, page 28, G2.”
“Research associate Ron Therrien shows us around, pointing out such species as the ruddy duck, the Harlequin and the surf scoter.”
The Washington Post: Duck, duck, owl: Patuxent research center is for the birds
“Predominant waterfowl species that breed in the region include the lesser scaup, pintail, scoter, and wigeon.”
“Judging by the density of this pattern and how precisely it's centered on the surf scoter (which was 25 to 30 yards from the shooter when Coats took the photo), there's no question about what happened to the duck milliseconds after the camera shutter closed.”
“There are 100Hevi-Shot No. 2 pellets, fired from a 3½-inch 12-gauge load, in the estimated 30-inch circle I drew around the densest part of this pattern (I used the scoter for scale; they average 19 inches long from beak to tail).”
“All of these incidents will force a scoter user onto the road which may mean risking their lives as drivers seem to think that because they are in a vehicle, that they always have the right of way.”
“Other interlopers included 2 red-breasted mergansers, a single white-winged scoter, and a common loon.”
“Wintering waterfowl include pintail, cinnamon teal, American widgeon, surf scoter and ruddy duck.”
Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, California
“Further north, where the forest become more characteristic of subarctic tundra, waterfowl species are common, such as black scoter (Melanitta nigra), Baikal teal (Anas formosa), and lesser white-fronted goose (Anser fabalis).”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘scoter’.
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 636 more...
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Duck!
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, or quacks like a duck, then you should probably list it here.
duck, Duck, turducken, duckling, duck tape, Mallard, rubber duckie, Daffy Duck, Donald Duck, lame duck, ducky, ducks and 95 more...
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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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More Bird Wirds: North America
Birds endemic to the United States and/or North America.
toucan, peacock, weaver, bullfinch, redpoll, siskin, crossbill, finch, rosy-finch, oriole, cowbird, blackbird and 213 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2253 more...
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Just ducky
bufflehead, merganser, canvasback, muscovy, smew, pochard, shoveler, goosander, teal, seaduck, sheldrake, mallard and 66 more...
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words i'm fond of
indomitable, faience, heliopause, inimitable, serried, inimical, concatenating, mytacism, pyroclastic, assigt, flange, anodyne and 17 more...
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Lowry
nutant, meed, donga, mephitic, punk, caliginous, cauchemar, horripilation, hyacinthine, corposant, counterscarp, garboon and 65 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for scoter.
yarb Citation on cognation. Jul 30, 2008