A wingbeat is one complete up-and-down motion of a bird's or insect's wing. When a hummingbird hovers in front of a flower, its wings move so fast you can barely see them: those are wingbeats happening up to 80 times per second. When a great blue heron flaps slowly across a pond, each powerful stroke is a wingbeat you can easily count.

Different creatures have dramatically different wingbeat patterns. A butterfly's wingbeats look leisurely and gentle, while a mosquito's create that annoying high-pitched whine you hear near your ear. Scientists study wingbeats to understand how creatures fly: they measure the speed, angle, and power of each beat to figure out how a bumblebee can carry so much weight or how an albatross can glide for hours with just occasional wingbeats.

The word can also describe the sound wings make. In a quiet forest, you might hear the wingbeats of a startled pheasant bursting from the underbrush, its wings drumming the air. Poets sometimes use wingbeat metaphorically for rhythm or pulse, like describing music as having the wingbeat of a bird in flight.