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# finch

«finch» in Mova's school dictionary: **a small songbird with a short, strong, cone-shaped beak…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a finch, finches)

### meaning for a pupil

A finch is a small songbird with a short, strong, cone-shaped beak for cracking seeds, such as a goldfinch, chaffinch or greenfinch. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/finch/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons, Darwin's finches on the Galápagos Islands are a famous example of adaptation and evolution: different islands had finches with different beak shapes suited to different foods, which helped Charles Darwin develop his ideas. In gardens, finches come to bird feeders with seeds. Phrases: «Darwin's finches», «goldfinch», «chaffinch», «a charm of finches» (a group of goldfinches).

### examples

- A goldfinch came to our bird feeder. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/finch/#x1)
- Finches crack seeds with their strong beaks. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/finch/#x2)
- Darwin studied the finches of the Galápagos Islands. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/finch/#x3)
- The chaffinch is one of the commonest birds in Britain. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/finch/#x4)
- Each kind of finch had a beak shaped for its food. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/finch/#x5)
- A group of goldfinches is called a charm. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/finch/#x6)
- But the field and wood sparrows, the larks and finches, blackbirds and green finches had picked up the millet long ago, and the girl could not find her way. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/finch/#x7)

### note

Plural «finches» (add -es after ch). Capital F for the surname Finch (e.g. Atticus Finch in a famous novel). Trap: not every small brown bird is a finch; sparrows are a different family.

### In the corpora

- [Peter and Rosemary Grant watched the finches' beaks change within just a few years after a drought.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/180-the-galapagos-giant-tortoises-sea-iguanas-darwins-finches-and-tame-sea-lions/8/)
- [In the 1970s Peter and Rosemary Grant measured finch beaks changing in just a few years after a drought.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/264-how-scientists-find-out-naturalists-darwin-the-microscope-and-wildlife-filming/9/)
- [Peter and Rosemary Grant measured finch beaks on the Galapagos for about 40 years.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/7/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «finch» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/finch/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.