puffin

noun

puf·​fin ˈpə-fən 

: any of several seabirds (genus Fratercula) of the northern hemisphere having a short neck and a deep grooved parti-colored laterally compressed bill

Illustration of puffin

Examples of puffin in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

One of my favorite recipes to use for jam is called the puffin jam. —Emily Elias, Bon Appetit Magazine, 3 June 2026

Viewers can see puffins in the summer and gray seals in the winter, the website states. —Michelle Del Rey, USA Today, 1 June 2026

Keep an eye out for puffins, sea otters, and humpback whales. —Stacey Leasca, Travel + Leisure, 20 May 2026

Less edible, but just as beguiling, are Amble’s puffins, which number up to 40,000 during their nesting season spent on Coquet Island, a mile or so offshore. —Rob Crossan, Condé Nast Traveler, 13 May 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English puffoun, poffin, pophyn "young of the shearwater Puffinus puffinus collected as food," probably borrowed from an unattested Middle Cornish cognate of Breton (Léon dialect) pocʼhan, pogan "puffin," (Basse-Cornouaille dialect) bocʼhanig (diminutive), probably a derivative of bocʼh "cheek" (Middle Cornish bogh), of uncertain origin

Note: Breton bocʼh and Middle Cornish bogh may descend from a British Celtic borrowing from Latin bucca "lower part of the cheeks, jaw, puffed-out cheeks," unless this word is itself a Celtic loan.

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing puffin

• Atlantic puffin

Rhymes for puffin

• akin
• auxin
• buckskin
• chagrin
• crankpin
• deerskin
• foreskin
• fuchsin
• herein
• kingpin
• linchpin
• pigskin

Kids Definition

puffin

noun

puf·​fin ˈpəf-ən 

: any of several seabirds that are related to the auks and have a short thick neck and a deep grooved bill marked with different colors