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tertial

[tur-shuh l]Ornithology
adjective
  1. pertaining to any of a set of flight feathers situated on the basal segment of a bird's wing.
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noun
  1. a tertial feather.
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Origin of tertial

1830–40; < Latin terti(us) third + -al1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for tertial

Historical Examples

  • Tertial, ter′shal, adj. of the third rank among the flight-feathers of a bird's wing.

    Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements)

    Various

British Dictionary definitions for tertial

tertial

adjective, noun
  1. another word for tertiary (def. 5), tertiary (def. 6)
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Word Origin

C19: from Latin tertius third, from ter thrice, from trēs three
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