- plural of furculum.
furcula
Americannoun
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furculae
plural
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the forked clavicular bone of a bird; wishbone.
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the ventral, forked appendage on the abdomen of a springtail that the insect uses in springing itself into the air.
noun
Other Word Forms
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Nouns
Etymology
Origin of furcula
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.
See Examples For:
The furcula is flexible enough to bend and provide support to the shoulder girdle during flapping.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
“The clavicle part is real. In birds, the fused clavicles form the furcula, or wishbone. And nowadays—in 2014—we know that dinosaurs had wishbones, too.”
From Newsweek
The two arms of the furcula in pouters diverge less, proportionally to their length, than in the rock-pigeon; and the symphysis is more solid and pointed.
From The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Vol. I. by Darwin, Charles
The keel is pushed back to the distal third of the sternum, whilst the original anterior margin of the keel is correspondingly elongated, and the furcula fused with the rostral portion.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 7 "Bible" to "Bisectrix" by Various
The arms of the furcula in all the specimens which I compared, diverged less, proportionally with the size of body, than in the rock-pigeon; and the whole furculum was proportionally shorter.
From The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication — Volume 1 by Darwin, Charles
During the takeoff, when the springtails smacked their tail-like furculae off the water, the collophores picked up a drop of water.
From New York Times ● Nov. 7, 2022
They also had wishbones, or furculae, another chapter of the story.
From New York Times ● Mar. 17, 2016
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.
