Meanings
mavis1
plural mavises
- poeticsong thrush
At midnight the moon cometh, / And looketh down alone; / Her song the lintwhite swelleth, / The clear voiced mavis dwelleth […]
1830, Tennyson Alfred Lord, “"Claribel"”, in Poems Chiefly Lyrical
Mavis2
- A female given name from English.
"Rather an odd name, Mavis, isn't it?" I at last ventured to observe. "Yes, - but it suits her wonderfully. She sings quite as sweetly as any thrush, so she merits her designation."
1895, Marie Corelli, chapter IX, in The Sorrows of Satan: or The Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire […], London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 139
Synonyms & antonyms
nouncommon Old World thrush noted for its song
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
mavis · noun
- Old Frenchmauvis“song thrush”
- Anglo-Normanmauvis
- Middle Englishmavys
- Englishmavis
From Middle English mavys, from Anglo-Norman mauvis, from Old French mauvis (“song thrush”).
More words from Middle English, Anglo-Norman, Old French
Full word history & related roots →Mavis · proper noun
Coined at the end of the 19th century from mavis, a poetical name for the song thrush.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with mavis
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
mavis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mavis
“mavis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mavis. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mavis,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mavis.
Source: mavis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.