More recently, the upturned wing tips of jet aircraft mimic the "fingers" of birds' terminal primary feathers, and the slotted leading edges of aircraft wings are directly copied from the alula ("thumb" wings) in birds.
Source: wiktionary
Alula
//ˈæljuːlə//
Synonyms for "alula" (9 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (2)
Noun(2 words)
Strong matches (3)
Noun(2 words)
Related words (4)
Noun(4 words)
Related word relations
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More general
6 entriesSynonyms
1 entriesderived
1 entriesetymologically related_to
1 entriesis a
1 entriespart of
1 entriesrelated to
3 entriesSample sentences
2 total sentences available.
On the wing, even the tiny “thumb feather” or alula can be seen.
Source: wiktionary
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.