Avian

How to spell avian

5 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce avian

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does avian mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to or characteristic of birds.

Avian in a sentence

• The lab confirmed an avian influenza outbreak among the poultry.

• The documentary explored the avian migration routes across two continents.

Where does avian come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from the Latin avis, which simply meant 'bird'. Scholars in the natural sciences added the suffix -an, meaning 'relating to', to produce 'avian' as a tidy adjective for anything to do with birds, and it entered English in the early nineteenth century as the study of wildlife grew more formal. The same avis root quietly underpins several other English words: an 'aviary' is literally a place for birds, and 'aviation' borrows the idea of flight from the creatures that mastered it first. The spelling trap lies in the unstressed middle: it is avi-an, with an 'i' rather than the 'e' some writers expect, and the word is pronounced with a long opening 'AY' that does not hint at how it is written. Because it appears most often in technical phrases such as 'avian influenza', many adults meet it in print far more than they ever write it.

How the word is built

• avi- (from Latin avis: bird)
• -an (adjective suffix meaning 'relating to')