featherless
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a word derived from
feather.
feathernounone of the horny structures forming the principal covering of birds, consisting typically of a hard, tubular portion attached to the body and tapering into a thinner, stemlike portion bearing a series of slender, barbed processes that interlock to form a flat structure on each side.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“We humans may be naked apes,” he writes, but “we are also in many ways featherless crows.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
Wood storks have a distinctive scaly, featherless gray head and a bright white feathered body with long skinny legs.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 14, 2023
In June and early July, the rookery would typically resemble a nursery overrun with featherless black-skinned newborns with pterodactyl features or weeks-old hatchlings with heart-shaped brown patches on their backs.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 1, 2022
In February, the team published another amber discovery: a bird's foot topped with feathers—an expected but previously unseen evolutionary step for modern birds, which later evolved scaly, featherless feet.
From Science Magazine ● May 23, 2019
Standard height, fluffy black-and-white plumage with distinctive barring, yellow featherless legs and feet.
From "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones
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