noun
cuckoo clock
A clock that announces the hour with a cuckoo sound and often a mechanical bird.
祖母の家には古い鳩時計がある。
There is an old cuckoo clock at my grandmother's house.
鳩時計が三時を知らせた。
The cuckoo clock announced three o'clock.
Standard kanji spelling.
Variant with katakana for the bird part; sometimes seen in product names or casual writing.
Variant with hiragana for the bird part; less common but still used.
Compound of 鳩 (hato, 'pigeon, dove') and 時計 (tokei, 'clock'), literally 'pigeon clock'. The name reflects the mechanical bird that pops out to mark the hour, even though the bird is typically a cuckoo.