: any of a genus (Limosa) of shorebirds that are related to the curlews and sandpipers and have a long slender slightly upturned or straight bill
Examples of godwit in a Sentence
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The gold medal winner for best all-time flyer is the Hudsonian godwit, which breeds in southern Alaska and west-central Hudson Bay in Canada, near the Arctic tundra.
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Sheryl Devore, Chicago Tribune, 18 Feb. 2026
For species like Hudsonian godwits, long-legged, pigeon-sized shorebirds that migrate 9,000 miles from southern South America to nest in places like Hudson Bay, arriving on schedule means finding the land still locked in ice and snow.
—Scott Weidensaul, AZCentral.com, 13 Jan. 2025
Shorebirds began their journeys early and travel fast, many of them after a short breeding season in the far, far north, so birds like sandpipers, yellowlegs, willets, godwits and curlews are already present in abundant numbers.
—Jack Gedney, The Mercury News, 23 Sep. 2024
But seemingly out of nowhere, the godwit was found dead a week after its first sighting, officials said.
—Makiya Seminera, Miami Herald, 9 Feb. 2024
Martha’s Vineyard: Nineteen snow geese at the Vineyard Golf Club in Edgartown, a marbled godwit at Eel Pond in Edgartown, and a blue-gray gnatcatcher on Clay Pit Road at Aquinnah.
—BostonGlobe.com, 16 Sep. 2023
The Hudsonian godwit is one of them.
—Jim Robbins, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Jan. 2022
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Sheryl Devore, Chicago Tribune, 18 Feb. 2026
For species like Hudsonian godwits, long-legged, pigeon-sized shorebirds that migrate 9,000 miles from southern South America to nest in places like Hudson Bay, arriving on schedule means finding the land still locked in ice and snow.
—Scott Weidensaul, AZCentral.com, 13 Jan. 2025
Shorebirds began their journeys early and travel fast, many of them after a short breeding season in the far, far north, so birds like sandpipers, yellowlegs, willets, godwits and curlews are already present in abundant numbers.
—Jack Gedney, The Mercury News, 23 Sep. 2024
But seemingly out of nowhere, the godwit was found dead a week after its first sighting, officials said.
—Makiya Seminera, Miami Herald, 9 Feb. 2024
Martha’s Vineyard: Nineteen snow geese at the Vineyard Golf Club in Edgartown, a marbled godwit at Eel Pond in Edgartown, and a blue-gray gnatcatcher on Clay Pit Road at Aquinnah.
—BostonGlobe.com, 16 Sep. 2023
The Hudsonian godwit is one of them.
—Jim Robbins, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Jan. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Godwit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/godwit. Accessed 10 Mar. 2026.
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