What is the difference between fowl and poultry

Studies have shown that both of them are close evolutionary relatives. Due to this difference in actual definition, however, there is no general relation between the two.

Neither are all poultry birds fowl, nor do all fowl birds fall into the category of poultry. For example, poultry birds like chicken and turkey fall into the category of landfowl, while those like geese and duck fall into the category of waterfowl.

But ostriches, sometimes domesticated for their eggs, are neither landfowl nor waterfowl; in short, ostriches aren't fowl. When we say chicken as we do a lot these days! Chicken is genderless. If we say hen then she is female, rooster is male, and chick refers to the younglings of either sex.

Cock is short for cockerel. When a cockerel is mature and part of a group of laying hens he has the privilege of being called a rooster mature and over a year in age. The dictionary defines a pullet as a young hen, one less than one year in age. Of the two categories of fowl, waterfowl is probably the easier of the two to get right.

Ducks and geese are the most often associated with this as they produce both meat and eggs for consumption. However, there is a small nuance to the definition of waterfowl that should be noted. Not all ducks and geese are domesticated. And as poultry deals with domesticated birds, the class of waterfowl does not lie completely within the poultry definition.

The penguin is a swimming bird that lives in an aquatic environment. If I kept penguins for their eggs, would they be considered waterfowl and poultry?

Hence, penguins should not be considered a waterfowl. With regards to poultry, while there are no penguin-for-food farms that I am aware off, should there actually be one, then the penguin would fall into the category of poultry as it is a domesticated bird that is being kept for consumption.

What Is Landfowl? The name landfowl is a little more tricky as it is not really an accurate term. By this definition, even the tiny hummingbird would be up for grabs as it lives on land and not the water. The correct term for what we refer to as landfowl is galliformes.

Yet we already know that the ostrich is not considered a landfowl. Because it comes from a different family of fowl — the Struthionidae. What's the difference between 'fowl' and 'poultry'? Ask Question. Asked 9 years, 8 months ago. Active 7 years, 10 months ago. Viewed 48k times. As the title says, I'm interested in the semantic difference between these two words.

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Merriam-Webster's defines as follows: poultry : domesticated birds kept for eggs or meat fowl : 1 a bird of any kind 2 any of several domesticated or wild gallinaceous birds Interestingly enough, my online dictionary says that gallinaceous includes " domestic poultry and game birds.