finch

noun

ˈfinch 

: any of numerous passerine songbirds (families Fringillidae, Estrildidae, Emberizidae, and Cardinalidae) having a short stout usually conical bill adapted for crushing seeds

Examples of finch in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And a guinea pig, chickens, ducks, finches, a goose, rabbits, donkeys, pigs, a cow, goats, horses… Our family consisted of a menagerie of species. —Chi Varnado, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 May 2025

Sunflowers Perhaps the best choice of flowers to make your garden attractive to birds are sunflowers, which according to Clarke provide shelter and food to birds, attracting multiple species, including finches, sparrows and chickadees. —Maria Azzurra Volpe, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Apr. 2025

In both parrots and finches, the mutations responsible for yellow-to-red color variation did not change the function of the enzymes involved. —Simon Griffith, JSTOR Daily, 5 Dec. 2024

Lastly, the reddish mating color on his head feathers appears fainter and lesser than the other male finches. —Joan Morris, The Mercury News, 3 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English fynche, fynch, going back to Old English fink, going back to West Germanic *finki-, *finkja-, perhaps going back to an Indo-European echoic noun base *ping-, whence also Greek pínga "nestling" and, with mobile s, Greek spíngon "siskin," Old Norse spiki "tit," Swedish spink "finch" (in regional gulspink "yellowhammer" or "great tit"), dialectal English spink "finch" (perhaps borrowed from Scandinavian)

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing finch

• house finch
• purple finch
• zebra finch

Rhymes for finch

• cinch
• flinch
• inch
• lynch
• pinch
• synch
• winch
• bullfinch
• goldfinch

Kids Definition

finch

noun

ˈfinch 

: any of numerous songbirds (as the sparrows, grosbeaks, crossbills, goldfinches, and buntings) that have a short stout bill adapted for crushing seeds