redshank
noun
redshank is a noun meaning “Any of two species of Old World wading bird in the genus Tringa that have long red legs” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-E-D-S-H-A-N-K, and it appears about once in every 20 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of redshank is redshanks.
What does redshank mean?
noun
- 1
Any of two species of Old World wading bird in the genus Tringa that have long red legs.
- 2
Any member of the species Ceratodon purpureus of moss.
- 3
Lady's thumb or redleg (Persicaria maculosa), an herb in the buckwheat family.
- 4
derogatoryobsoleteA bare-legged person; one of the Scottish Highlanders, who wore kilts.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce redshank?
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-redshank.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of redshank
- redshanks plural
- red shank
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is redshank?
Redshank appears about once in every 20 million words in written English, the 134,976th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Redshank in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense Old World wading bird:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | gambette |
| German | Rotschenkel |
| Spanish | archibebe |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does redshank come from?
From red + shank.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).