scansorial
Americanadjective
-
capable of or adapted for climbing, as the feet of certain birds, lizards, etc.
-
habitually climbing, as a woodpecker.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of scansorial
1800–10; < Latin scānsōri ( us ) for climbing ( scand ( ere ) to climb ( see scan) + -tōrius -tory 1, with dt > s ) + -al 1
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.
The South American tropics are dominated by the mostly terrestrial teiioids and mostly scansorial and arboreal iguanians.
From Scientific American • Apr. 1, 2013
They belong to the scansorial order of birds; that is, they have two toes forward and two backward.
From Minnie's Pet Parrot by Leslie, Madeline
As implied above the brush mouse is adapted for a scansorial mode of life; but other mice and rats inhabit the rocky crevices of low bluffs.
From Natural History of the Brush Mouse (Peromyscus boylii) in Kansas With Description of a New Subspecies by Long, Charles A.
He goes on to add: "The anterior limbs are decidedly fossorial, and the hinder suited for walking in a sub-plantigrade manner; both wholly unfitted for rapatory or scansorial purposes."
From Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon by Sterndale, Robert Armitage
The foot of the parrot is formed for climbing, being, as Linnæus would say, scansorial, that is, with two toes forwards and two backwards.
From Mamma's Stories about Birds by Leathley, Mary Elizabeth Southwell Dudley
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.
