pinnate

Often pin·nat·ed

[pin-eyt, -it]

adjective

Biology.

1. (of a leaf ) having leaflets or primary divisions arranged on each side of a common stalk.

   the pinnate leaves of a palm tree.

2. resembling a feather, as in construction or arrangement; having parts arranged on each side of a common axis.

   This type of sea cucumber has a mouth surrounded by up to 25 pinnate tentacles.

pinnate

/ ˈpɪneɪt, ˈpɪnɪt /

adjective

1. like a feather in appearance

2. (of compound leaves) having the leaflets growing opposite each other in pairs on either side of the stem

pinnate

1. Having parts or divisions arranged on each side of a common axis in the manner of a feather. Ash, hickory, and walnut trees have pinnate leaves.

Other Word Forms

• pinnately adverb
• pinnation noun
• pinnatedly adverb
• multipinnate adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of pinnate¹

First recorded in 1695–1705, pinnate is from the Latin word pinnātus “feathered, winged.” See pinna, -ate ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of pinnate¹

C18: from Latin pinnātus, from pinna feather

Example Sentences

“These are all cycads,” the composer Tobias Picker said, gesturing at a low canopy of fanned-out, pinnate leaves near the entrance of the conservatory at the New York Botanical Garden.

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The pronouncer told her it meant a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees having pinnate leaves with imbricated petals.

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Their once-luxuriant crowns had thinned to an eerie transparency; instead of a shifting canopy of pinnate leaves, bare twigs showed stark against the sky.

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A Victorian field guide, for example, describes Agrimonia in rather uncompromising terms: "Herbs with stipulate, pinnate, serrate leaves and terminal bracteate spine-like racemes of small yellow flowers."

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Primary portion and branches thick, the branches interruptedly pinnate with short obtuse divisions.—On decayed wood and moss in swamps, N. J.

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