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

Keep an eye out for the park’s more than 60 bird varieties, like the noisy scrub blackbird or the bright-gold saffron finch. —Jennifer Kester, Forbes.com, 2 June 2025

Attracting bears to a campsite, however, is a lot different from enticing finches to your back fence. —Joan Morris, Mercury News, 19 May 2025

The interaction between the vampire finch and its host species is an example of a parasitic relationship, with the finch benefiting from the blood while the host bird experiences some level of harm, though the finch is not typically a significant threat to the host’s survival. —Scott Travers, Forbes, 18 Mar. 2025

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

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