Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A genus of ratite birds, constituting the family Apterygidœ.
- noun [lowercase] A bird of this genus; a kiwi (which see).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) A genus of New Zealand birds about the size of a hen, with only short rudiments of wings, armed with a claw and without a tail; the kiwi. It is allied to the gigantic extinct moas of the same country. Five species are known.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun nocturnal flightless bird of New Zealand having a long neck and stout legs; only surviving representative of the order Apterygiformes
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word apteryx.
Examples
-
There is the kiwi, or apteryx, which is about as large as a turkey, but only found on the
-
The remnants of these vanished birds in the form of subfossils ancient bones, not yet petrified and fossils suggest wide variation on the basic model: enormously tall moas of the genus Dinornis, smaller but thick-legged moas of the genus Pachyornis, medium-sized moas of the genus Bury apteryx, pygmy moas of the genus Anomalopteryx.
The Song of The Dodo David Quammen 2004
-
The remnants of these vanished birds in the form of subfossils ancient bones, not yet petrified and fossils suggest wide variation on the basic model: enormously tall moas of the genus Dinornis, smaller but thick-legged moas of the genus Pachyornis, medium-sized moas of the genus Bury apteryx, pygmy moas of the genus Anomalopteryx.
The Song of The Dodo David Quammen 2004
-
The object that had come between him and the Gulf was a mounted man-or rather, the idiot-headed apteryx the man was sitting on.
Anywhen Blish, James 1970
-
The mammary glands of all male beasts constitute another example, as also does the wing of the apteryx -- a New Zealand bird utterly incapable of flight, and with the wing in a quite rudimentary condition
On the Genesis of Species St. George Mivart
-
Man had been defined as a gelastic apteryx, but in view of the attitude of women towards the Plumage Bill the definition could hardly be allowed to fit the requirements of the spindle side of creation.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, April 29, 1914 Various
-
In considering the rudimentary wings of the apteryx, or of the moa, emu, ostrich, &c., we must not forget the frequent or occasional occurrence of hard seasons, and times of drought and famine, when Nature eliminates redundant, wasteful, and ill-adapted organisms in so severe and wholesale a fashion.
Are the Effects of Use and Disuse Inherited? An Examination of the View Held by Spencer and Darwin
-
One such reason is the way in which struthious birds are, or have been, distributed around the antarctic region: as the ostrich in Africa, the rhea in South America, the emeu in Australia, the apteryx, dinornis, &c. in New Zealand, the epiornis in Madagascar.
On the Genesis of Species St. George Mivart
-
Greenland, and Siberia, but the relentless onslaught of the Ice Age wrought terrible destruction and, like the giant tortoises among reptiles, the apteryx among birds, and the bison among mammals, the forlorn hope of the great redwoods, making a last stand in a few small groves of
The Log of the Sun A Chronicle of Nature's Year William Beebe 1919
-
Allied to these are the four species of Kiwi or apteryx, still existing there.
yaybob commented on the word apteryx
Genus of the kiwi
December 11, 2008
jaime_d commented on the word apteryx
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010