cassowary
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cassowary
1605–15; by uncertain mediation < Central Moluccan kasuwari, kasuwali
Explanation
A cassowary is a large flightless bird that's related to an emu. Cassowaries are native to parts of Australia and New Guinea. Though the cassowary is shorter than its leggy emu relatives, these birds are actually heavier — second only to the ostrich. Cassowaries are brightly colored and have a distinctive casque, or helmet, on top of their heads, which some biologists suspect helps the birds amplify a deep "boom" sound they often make. They're also incredibly shy, and difficult to spot in the wild. Cassowary is from the Papuan kasu weri, "horned head."
Vocabulary lists containing cassowary
Australia and New Zealand - Introductory
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Australia and New Zealand - Middle School and High School
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Birds, Birds, Birds, List 2
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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.
A southern cassowary chick, one of the world's largest and deadliest birds, has been successfully hatched for the first time at a bird park in the Cotswolds.
From BBC • Sep. 8, 2024
That’s because the southern cassowary, for all its fearsome reputation, is powerfully shy, and remarkably good at making itself scarce.
From New York Times • Jun. 30, 2023
Among the animals they studied are ostriches, cassowary birds and wombats.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 12, 2021
And while people might have been eating the embryos, Douglass said, “there’s a great possibility that people were hatching those eggs and rearing cassowary chicks.”
From Seattle Times • Sep. 28, 2021
These feathers are specially interesting, inasmuch as they retain throughout life a stage corresponding to that seen in the very young cassowary, the calamus being greatly swollen, and supporting a very degenerate rhachis and vane.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 2 "Fairbanks, Erastus" to "Fens" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
