| / English Dictionary |
RATITE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Flightless birds having flat breastbones lacking a keel for attachment of flight muscles: ostriches; cassowaries; emus; moas; rheas; kiwis; elephant birds
Synonyms:
flightless bird; ratite; ratite bird
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("ratite" is a kind of...):
bird (warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ratite"):
ostrich; Struthio camelus (fast-running African flightless bird with two-toed feet; largest living bird)
cassowary (large black flightless bird of Australia and New Guinea having a horny head crest)
Dromaius novaehollandiae; emu; Emu novaehollandiae (large Australian flightless bird similar to the ostrich but smaller)
apteryx; kiwi (nocturnal flightless bird of New Zealand having a long neck and stout legs; only surviving representative of the order Apterygiformes)
rhea; Rhea americana (larger of two tall fast-running flightless birds similar to ostriches but three-toed; found from Brazil to Patagonia)
nandu; Pterocnemia pennata; rhea (smaller of two tall fast-running flightless birds similar to ostriches but three-toed; found from Peru to Strait of Magellan)
aepyornis; elephant bird (huge (to 9 ft.) extinct flightless bird of Madagascar)
moa (extinct flightless bird of New Zealand)
Antonym:
carinate (birds having keeled breastbones for attachment of flight muscles)
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