kakapo means A large flightless parrot, Strigops habroptilus, with greenish plumage, that is nocturnal and native to New Zealand.
kakapo is pronounced /ˈkɑːkəpəʊ/.
Why “kakapo” is a great word
A large, flightless, nocturnal parrot (Strigops habroptilus) with greenish plumage, native to New Zealand. Borrowed from Māori kākāpō, from kākā (a type of parrot) + pō (night), literally 'night parrot', first attested in English circa 1843. Unlike the sharp, acrobatic kea or the smaller, social kākā, the kakapo is a creature of deliberate, earthbound solitude. It is the soft thud of moss-green feathers landing on forest loam, the low-frequency boom of a mating call resonating through dark valleys, and the patient camouflage of a bird that walks where others fly—evolution's quiet wager that flightlessness might be survived by stillness, by becoming invisible in the night, until the world itself grows too loud.
Etymology
Borrowed from Māori kākāpō.
noun
- A large flightless parrot, Strigops habroptilus, with greenish plumage, that is nocturnal and native to New Zealand.e.g.“Analyses of the DNA fragments preserved in the moa and kakapo coprolites showed that moa and kakapo fed on fungi.” — 2018 April 4, Hanneke Meijer, “On fossil poo and picky eaters: a new study sheds light on New Zealand's past ecosystem”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 04 Apr 2018:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- kaka 69% match — Any of four taxa of birds in the genus Nestor in the parrot family confined to New Zealand and adjacent islands. vs kakapo →
- kakaho 57% match — A reed (Chionochloa conspicua), native to New Zealand. vs kakapo →
- kakawahie 56% match — Paroreomyza flammea, an extinct Hawaiian honeycreeper. vs kakapo →
- cockatoo 56% match — A bird of the family Cacatuidae with a curved beak and a zygodactyl foot. vs kakapo →
- apteryx 56% match — Kiwi bird. vs kakapo →
- pipipi 56% match — A bird of New Zealand, Mohoua novaeseelandiae. vs kakapo →
- kagu 55% match — A New Caledonian endemic bird species, Rhynochetos jubatus, the only surviving member of the family Rhynochetidae. vs kakapo →
- weka 55% match — Gallirallus australis, a flightless bird of New Zealand in the family Rallidae with brown plumage. vs kakapo →