owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

is a bird of prey. Owl, Owls, or OWL may also refer to:

Arts and entertainment

Fictional entities

* Owl (comics), the name of several comics characters * Owl (''Winnie the Pooh'') * Ordinary Wizarding Level, a test of magical aptitude in the ''Harry Potter'' novel series

Film and television

* ''Owl'' (film), a 2003 Japanese black comedy * ''The Owl'' (1927 film), a German silent film * ''The Owl'' (1991 film), an American television film * ''The Owl'' (TV series), a French series of animated shorts for children *''

OWL/TV OWL/TV is a Canadian children's educational television series that aired on CBC, from 1985 to 1990, and then later on CTV, from 1990 to 1994. It focused on nature and science discovery, emphasizing to viewers how they can affect their own envir ...

'', a Canadian children's educational television series 1985–1994 * "Owls" (''Millennium''), a television episode

Literature

* "The Owl" (fairy tale), a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm * ''OWL'' (magazine), a Canadian children's educational magazine; basis of the ''OWL/TV'' series * ''The Owl'' (magazine): A Wednesday Journal of Politics and Society, a satirical society newspaper published in London 1864–1870

Music

* Owl (band), a Los Angeles-based hard-rock band, and the title of their 2009 album *

Owls (band) Owls are an indie rock band from Chicago, Illinois. They were initially active from 2001-2002 and reunited in 2012. The band is composed of the original lineup of the emo band Cap'n Jazz excluding guitarist Davey von Bohlen, who had left to for ...

, a Chicago-based rock band ** ''Owls'' (album), 2001 * Of Wondrous Legends, or O.W.L., an American psych folk band, and the title of their 1971 album * ''The Owl'' (album), by the Zac Brown Band, 2019 *''Owl'', an album by

Qwel Adam Vincent Schreiber (born June 6, 1980), better known by his stage name Qwel, is an underground rapper and author, originally from Chicago, Illinois. Qwel is co-founder of the underground rap crew Typical Cats, with fellow MCs Denizen Kane ...

& Maker, 2010

Other uses in arts and entertainment

* ''Owl'' (sculpture), a public statue in Canberra, Australia *

NASPA Word List NASPA Word List (NWL, formerly Official Tournament and Club Word List, referred to as OTCWL, OWL, TWL) is the official word authority for tournament Scrabble in the USA and Canada under the aegis of NASPA Games. It is based on the ''Official Scrabb ...

, or OWL, the official word list for ''Scrabble'' in North America

Businesses and organizations

* Office Workstations Limited, a British software company * Older Women's League, an American organization * Order of Owls, an American fraternal order * Owl Labs, a company that builds remote conferencing devices *

The Owl Drug Company The Owl Drug Company was an American drugstore retailer with its headquarters in San Francisco. It was a subsidiary of Rexall stores at its peak in the 1920s through 1940s. The company sold medicines and pills, and later ventured into cosmetics, pe ...

, an American drug retailer

Languages

* Owl (hieroglyph), an Egyptian language uniliteral * Old Welsh, ISO 639 language code owl

Military

* HMS ''Owl'', the name of a British ship and a shore establishment * USS ''Owl'', the name of two American ships * CSS ''Owl'', a Confederate States Navy blockade runner in the American Civil War *

Curtiss O-52 Owl The Curtiss O-52 Owl was an observation aircraft used by the United States Army Air Corps before and during World War II. Design and development Developed in 1939, the Curtiss O-52 was the last "heavy" observation aircraft developed for the US ...

, an American observation aircraft before and during World War II

People

Owl Chapman Craig Elmer "Owl" Chapman is a surfer. He is considered one of the fathers of the short board revolution. He pioneered board riding with early designs on Oahu by Dick Brewer, including the minigun. The school of surf that Chapman originates fro ...

, a short-board surfer *

Owl Fisher Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir, also known as Owl Fisher (born 6 January 1991), is an Icelandic journalist, filmmaker, author and non-binary gender, non-binary trans activist. Early life Fisher was born in Iceland on 6 January 19 ...

(born 1991), an Icelandic journalist * Owl Goingback (born 1959), American author

Places

* Owl Creek (disambiguation) *

Owl Mountains The Owl Mountains ( pl, Góry Sowie, cs, Soví hory, german: Eulengebirge) are a mountain range of the Central Sudetes in southwestern Poland. It includes a protected area called Owl Mountains Landscape Park. Geography The Owl Mountains cover ...

, Poland * Owl Peak, Wyoming, U.S. * Owl River (disambiguation) * Olympic–Wallowa Lineament (OWL), a physiographic feature in Washington State, U.S. * Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL), an area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Science and technology

Astronomy

NGC 457 NGC 457 (also designated Caldwell 13, and known as the Dragonfly Cluster, E.T. Cluster, Owl Cluster, Kachina Doll Cluster or Phi Cassiopeiae Cluster) is an open star cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia. Discovery It was discovered by Wil ...

, an open star cluster also known as the Owl Cluster *

Owl Nebula The Owl Nebula (also known as Messier 97, M97 or NGC 3587) is a starburst planetary nebula, ("planetary") nebula approximately 2,030 light years away in the celestial hemisphere, northern constellation Ursa Major. The estimated age of the Owl Nebu ...

, in the constellation Ursa Major *

Overwhelmingly Large Telescope The Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (OWL) was a conceptual design by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) organization for an extremely large telescope, which was intended to have a single aperture of 100 meters in diameter. Because of the c ...

, a proposed optical telescope

Computing

Object Windows Library The Object Windows Library (OWL) is a C++ object-oriented application framework designed to simplify desktop application development for Windows and (some releases) OS/2. OWL was introduced by Borland in 1991 and eventually deprecated in 1997 i ...

, a C++ object-oriented application framework * Online Watch Link, a commercial web application for Neighbourhood Watch schemes *

Openwall Project The Openwall Project is a source for various software, including Openwall GNU/*/Linux (Owl), a security-enhanced Linux distribution designed for servers. Openwall patches and security extensions have been included into many major Linux distribut ...

(Owl), a security-enhanced Linux distribution * Owl (AOL), a user-generated content site created by AOL in 2010 * Owl Scientific Computing, a software system for scientific and engineering computing *

Web Ontology Language The Web Ontology Language (OWL) is a family of knowledge representation languages for authoring ontologies. Ontologies are a formal way to describe taxonomies and classification networks, essentially defining the structure of knowledge for vario ...

, a family of knowledge representation languages

Sports

Bielawa Owls The Bielawa Owls are an American football team located in Bielawa, Poland. They play in the Liga Futbolu Amerykańskiego. History The team was founded in December 2007 by Przemysław Klinger. In 2010, they won the PLFA II championship and were pro ...

, an American football team based in Bielawa, Poland *

Chicago Owls The Chicago Owls were a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They were members of the Professional Football League of America (PFLA) in 1967 and, after the leagues merged, the Continental Football League (COFL) during t ...

, a defunct professional American football team based in Chicago * Clinton Owls, a defunct minor league baseball team, based in Clinton, Iowa (1937–1938) * Dayton Owls, a minor league ice hockey team in the International Hockey League for the 1977–1978 season *

Florida Atlantic Owls The Florida Atlantic Owls are the athletics teams of Florida Atlantic University. The Owls participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)'s Division I as members of Conference USA. On October 21, 2021, Florida Atlantic accep ...

, the athletics teams of Florida Atlantic University * Forest City Owls, a baseball team in the Coastal Plain League, a collegiate summer league *

Grand Rapids Owls The Grand Rapids Owls was a USA Hockey-sanctioned Tier III Junior A ice hockey team in the Central States Hockey League. The team played their home games at the Southside Community Ice Center in Byron Center, Michigan. The players, ages 16– ...

, a defunct International Hockey League team *Owls, the athletic teams of

Keene State College Keene State College is a public liberal arts college in Keene, New Hampshire. It is part of the University System of New Hampshire and the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Founded in 1909 as a teacher's college (originally, Keene Norm ...

Kennesaw State Owls The Kennesaw State Owls fields 17 varsity athletics teams, competing for Kennesaw State University. After spending ten years in Division II's Peach Belt Conference, the university fully transitioned to Division I status in the National Collegi ...

, the athletic teams of Kennesaw State University *Owls, the athletic teams of the

University of Maine at Presque Isle The University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMaine Presque Isle or UMPI) is a public college in Presque Isle, Maine. It is part of the University of Maine System and one of two University of Maine System schools in Aroostook County (the other bein ...

Orem Owlz The Orem Owlz were a Minor League Baseball team located in Orem, Utah, United States, from 2001 to 2020. The team competed in the Pioneer League as a Rookie League affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels. The Owlz played their home games at Home o ...

, a minor league baseball team *

Rice Owls Rice University athletic teams are known as the Rice Owls. The name comes from the owls in Rice's crest. Rice participates in NCAA Division I athletics. A member of Conference USA, Rice sponsors teams in seven men's and seven women's NCAA sanct ...

, the athletic teams of Rice University *

Temple Owls The Temple Owls are the athletic teams that represent Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The current athletic director is Arthur Johnson. The owl has been the symbol and mascot for Temple University since its founding in the 1 ...

, the athletic teams of Temple University * Topeka Owls, a defunct Western Association minor league baseball team based in Topeka, Kansas *

Uni-Norths Owls The Uni-Norths Owls is a rugby union club located on the campus of the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The club was a result of the merger of ANU and University of Canberra rugby clubs in 1998, wit ...

, an Australian rugby union club *Owls, the athletic teams of

Westfield State University Westfield State University (Westfield State) is a public university in Westfield, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1839 by Horace Mann as the first public co-educational college in America without barrier to race, gender, or economic class. Ra ...

Sheffield Wednesday F.C. Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

, an English football club nicknamed "The Owls" * OWLS AC Leicester, an English athletics club *

Guildford Owls The Guildford Owls are a rugby league club based in Guildford, New South Wales, Australia. They have previously competed in the Ron Massey Cup, the Sydney Shield and have also competed in the Sydney Metropolitan Women's Rugby League. History ...

, an Australian rugby league club *

Overwatch League The Overwatch League (OWL) is a professional esports league for the video game ''Overwatch'', produced by its developer, Blizzard Entertainment. The Overwatch League follows the model of other traditional North American professional sporting le ...

, a professional esports league

Transportation

* OWLS, a mnemonic used by general aviation airplane pilots *

Owl service Night service, sometimes also known as owl service, refers to the public transport services operated during the night hours. These services are operated, mainly using buses but in certain cases using trams (or streetcars), not including int ...

, or public transport night service * ''Night Owl'' (train), between Boston and Washington, D.C. *''Owl'' a train on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and later

Erie Lackawanna Railway The Erie Lackawanna Railway , known as the Erie Lackawanna Railroad until 1968, was formed from the 1960 merger of the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. The official motto of the line was "The Friendly Service Route" ...

*''Owl'' a train of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company

Other uses

Owl butterfly The owl butterflies are species of the genus ''Caligo'' and are known for their huge eyespots, which resemble owls' eyes. They are found in the rainforests and secondary forests of Mexico, Central and South America. Owl butterflies are very ...

, a member of the genus ''Caligo'' * Olympic–Wallowa Lineament, a geological feature in the state of Washington * Online Writing Lab, an extension of a university writing center *

Our Whole Lives Our Whole Lives, or OWL, is a series of six comprehensive sexuality curricula for children, teenagers, young adults and adults published by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries. P ...

, a comprehensive sexuality curriculum from the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ