Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of the third rank or row among the flight-feathers of a bird's wing; tertiary, as a quill-feather.
  • noun A tertiary flight-feather; one of the pennæ, or large feathers, of a bird's wing of the third set, which grow on the elbow or upper arm; one of the tertiaries.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • (Zoöl.) Same as tertiary.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun ornithology Any flight feather attached to the humerus (upper arm) of a bird.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word tertial.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • third row feathers...who knew?

    February 7, 2012

  • Thanks, fbharjo. I love this bit: "tertiary, as a quill-feather."

    February 7, 2012