Passerine

Quick meaning: Passerine is an adjective meaning Any bird of the order Passeriformes, which comprises more than half of all bird species.

Meaning

Any bird of the order Passeriformes, which comprises more than half of all bird species.

More Meanings

1. Of or relating to the Passeriformes order of perching birds, which are generally anisodactyl (“having three toes pointing forward and one back, which facilitates perching”).
2. (archaic) Chiefly in the former names of some birds: approximately the size of a sparrow.

Example Sentences

If we examine the names of the Orders of Birds, we find that they are in Latin, […] We might venture to anglicize the terminations of the names which Cuvier gives to the divisions of these Orders: thus the Predators are the Diurnals and the Nocturnals; the Passerines are the Dentirostres, the Fissirostres, the Conirostres, the Tenuirostres, and the Syndactyls: the word lustre showing that the former termination is allowable.

Word Forms

• passerines

Synonyms for passerine

Depending on context, synonyms include passeriform.

Antonyms for passerine

Common opposites include nonpasserine.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include passeridan, passeriform, nonpasserine, psittaciform, petroicid, anseriform.

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