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

This Oregon town’s four-mile stretch of beach is known for its sea stack rock formations, the most famous of which is Haystack Rock, a nesting area for puffins. —Kara Williams, USA Today, 25 Apr. 2026

Most recently, the couple travelled to Reykjavik, Iceland, with her parents, and saw puffins on the Westman Islands. —Wendy Grossman Kantor, PEOPLE, 16 Apr. 2026

The series follows Oona and Baba, a sister-and-brother puffin duo, and the other inhabitants of an island off the coast of Ireland. —Kara Nesvig, Parents, 12 Apr. 2026

Migrating puffins—hundreds, perhaps thousands—filled the sky. —Akash Kapur, Travel + Leisure, 7 Apr. 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
• deerskin
• foreskin
• fuchsin
• herein
• kingpin
• linchpin
• pigskin
• pinyin

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