flightless

[ flahyt-lis ]

/ ˈflaɪt lɪs /

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adjective

incapable of flying: flightless birds such as the moa, rhea, and dodo.

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His boss, whom he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

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Origin of flightless

First recorded in 1870–75; flight¹ + -less

Words nearby flightless

flight engineer, flight feather, flight formation, flight instrument, flight leader, flightless, flight level, flight lieutenant, flight line, flight management systems, flight nurse

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use flightless in a sentence

Giant flightless birds called mihirungs were the biggest birds to ever stride across what is now Australia.
Ancient ‘demon ducks’ may have been undone by their slow growth|Jake Buehler|August 31, 2022|Science News
Strikingly, when Polynesian farmers encountered New Zealand’s abundant flightless birds, they largely abandoned agriculture, creating the Maori moa-hunter culture.
How the Extinction of Ice Age Mammals May Have Forced Us to Invent Civilization|Nicholas R. Longrich|December 29, 2021|Singularity Hub
A flightless, juvenal female was obtained by local boys at Pisté on July 21.
Summer Birds From the Yucatan Peninsula|Erwin E. Klaas
The wekas or Maori hens are small, flightless birds, averaging when full grown about two and three-quarter pounds.
The Home of the Blizzard|Douglas Mawson

The Ratitae differ from Archaeopteryx and the great majority of Carinatae in being flightless.
The Vertebrate Skeleton|Sidney H. Reynolds
In several instances I have treated of extinct flightless species under genera including existing species capable of flight.
Extinct Birds|Walter Rothschild
This appears to have been a very large species, with not very great powers of flight, if not flightless.
Extinct Birds|Walter Rothschild

British Dictionary definitions for flightless

flightless

/ (ˈflaɪtlɪs) /

adjective

(of certain birds and insects) unable to flySee also ratite

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012