A turtledove is a small wild dove with soft grey-brown feathers and a gentle, rolling coo — a sound people describe as one of the quietest, most peaceful noises in the countryside. Turtledoves famously stay with one partner and sit close together, so for hundreds of years English writers have used them as a picture of faithful, tender love. Because of that second life as a symbol, you will meet the word far more often in poems, songs, wedding speeches and the Bible than in ordinary conversation — and in the Christmas song 'The Twelve Days of Christmas', where 'two turtle doves' arrive on the second day. People sometimes call a devoted couple 'a pair of turtledoves', usually with a little warmth and a little teasing. You will see it written as one word (turtledove) or two (turtle dove); both are correct, with the two-word spelling more common in Britain. Note that the bird is now sadly rare in much of Europe, so even native speakers may know the word better than the bird.

斑鳩（尤指歐斑鳩）；在詩歌、婚禮場合則是「愛侶、比翼鳥」那種象徵。台灣常見的珠頸斑鳩不是同一種，但講到 turtledove 時，用「斑鳩」去接就對了。