aliform

American  

[al-uh-fawrm, ey-luh-] / ˈæl əˌfɔrm, ˈeɪ lə- /

adjective

1. wing-shaped; wing-like; alar.

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aliform British  

/ ˈeɪlɪ-, ˈælɪˌfɔːm /

adjective

1. wing-shaped; alar

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Etymology

Origin of aliform

First recorded in 1830–40; al(a) + -i- + -form

Explanation

Something that's aliform is shaped like a wing or a pair of wings. You might fly an aliform butterfly kite on a windy day. You're most likely to find the adjective aliform in a science textbook — the word is used in anatomy to describe certain bones that have a winglike shape, and in biology to talk about the shape of actual wings, particularly in butterflies. Aliform is rooted in the modern Latin aliformis, from ala, "wing," and formis, "shape or form."

Example Sentences

Pterygoid, ter′i-goid, n. one of a pair of bones in the facial apparatus of some vertebrata behind the palatines, known in human anatomy as the pterygoid plates of the sphenoid bone.—adj. aliform or alate.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various