ratite
A member of a diverse group of mostly large, running, flightless birds that lack keels…A member of a diverse group of mostly large, running, flightless birds that lack keels on their sternums, mostly extinct such as the elephant bird and the moa, but including the extant cassowaries, emu, kiwi, ostrich, and rhea; formerly grouped together in the order Struthioniformes, and including the Paleognathae except the tinamous.
Meaning
1 sensesA member of a diverse group of mostly large, running, flightless birds that lack keels on their sternums, mostly extinct such as the elephant bird and the moa, but including the extant cassowaries, emu, kiwi, ostrich, and rhea; formerly grouped together in the order Struthioniformes, and including the Paleognathae except the tinamous.
Laufvogel
- flightless birds having flat breastbones lacking a keel for attachment of flight muscles: ostriches, cassowaries, emus, moas, rheas, kiwis, elephant birds
Translations
5 languagesBy meaning 1
Origin
From Latin ratis (“raft”) + -ite; ratites (unlike other birds) lack a keel on their sternuFrom Latin ratis (“raft”) + -ite; ratites (unlike other birds) lack a keel on their sternum, and rafts are vessels that lack keels.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: ratitesSynonyms
3 synonyms- flightless birds having flat breastbones lacking a keel for attachment of flight muscles: ostriches, cassowaries, emus, moas, rheas, kiwis, elephant birds:ratite birdflightless bird