Pterylology

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The study of distribution of feathers on birds. obsolete, rare, uncountable

    "He gives some minute and valuable descriptions of the species, particularly as regards its pterylology and structure in comparison with other birds, as well as a detailed account of its habits, so as almost to justify the use of poisoned grain, which he seems to have tried in order to obtain specimens."

Example

More examples

"He gives some minute and valuable descriptions of the species, particularly as regards its pterylology and structure in comparison with other birds, as well as a detailed account of its habits, so as almost to justify the use of poisoned grain, which he seems to have tried in order to obtain specimens."

Etymology

From pteryla + -ology.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.