woodpecker

noun

wood·​peck·​er ˈwu̇d-ˌpe-kər 

: any of numerous birds (family Picidae) with zygodactyl feet, stiff spiny tail feathers used in climbing or resting on tree trunks, a usually extensible tongue, a very hard bill used to drill the bark or wood of trees for insect food or to excavate nesting cavities, and generally showy parti-colored plumage

Illustration of woodpecker

Examples of woodpecker in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Some trees have been used for acorn storage for more than a century by generations of woodpeckers. —Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Feb. 2026

White egrets stood in the shallows, a woodpecker knocked somewhere nearby, and pairs of green parrots flew upstream, beating their wings in time. —Stanley Stewart, Travel + Leisure, 10 Jan. 2026

By matching these measurements with high-speed videos, the scientists tracked the woodpeckers’ taps down to every four milliseconds. —Rohini Subrahmanyam, Scientific American, 2 Jan. 2026

Notably, a noisy woodpecker had set up a nest in our villa’s roof tiles, and the food at the two restaurants was a bit uninspired though perfectly fine. —Bloomberg, Mercury News, 29 Dec. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1530, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing woodpecker

• acorn woodpecker
• downy woodpecker
• hairy woodpecker
• ivory-billed woodpecker
• pileated woodpecker
• red-bellied woodpecker
• red-cockaded woodpecker

Rhymes for woodpecker

• exchequer
• checker
• chequer
• decker
• wrecker

Kids Definition

woodpecker

noun

wood·​peck·​er -ˌpek-ər 

: any of numerous brightly marked birds with strong claws and stiff tail feathers used in climbing or resting on tree trunks, a long flexible tongue, and a very hard bill used to drill into trees to get insects for food and to dig out holes for nesting