Added 9 October 2026

raven

/ˈɹeɪvn̩/ noun

In Latin: corvus Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about raven at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Any of several, generally large, species of birds in the genus Corvus with lustrous black plumage; especially the common raven (Corvus corax).
raven:
A jet-black, often glossy, colour, like that of the plumage of a raven (etymology 1, noun sense 1).
raven:
Usually preceded by a descriptive word: a bird from a genus other than Corvus that resembles the raven (etymology 1, noun sense 1), especially in having black plumage; also, an imaginary black bird.

Of the jet-black and often glossy colour of the plumage of a raven (etymology 1, noun sense 1).
raven curls raven darkness

From Middle English raven, reven (“raven (Corvus corax); carrion crow (Corvus corone); rook (Corvus frugilegus) (?); the constellation Corvus; gall nuts of the Aleppo oak (Quercus infectoria) used to make black ink”), from Old English hræfn (“raven”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrabn (“raven”), from Proto-Germanic *hrabnaz (“raven”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *ḱrep- (“to crackle; to rattle”) or *ḱer- (“to croak, crow”), probably ultimately onomatopoeic, referring to the bird’s call.