Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having two toes projecting forward and two projecting backward, as certain climbing birds.
- n. A zygodactyl bird, such as a parrot.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- In ornithology, yoke-toed: noting those birds, or the feet of those birds, which have the toes disposed in pairs, two before and two behind. In all yoke-toed birds, excepting the trogons, it is the outer anterior toe which is reversed; in trogons, the inner anterior one. See cut under
pair-toed and parrot. - n. A yoke-toed bird; a bird having the toes arranged in pairs.
Wiktionary
- adj. Having two toes pointing forward, and two pointing backward; zygodactylous.
- n. ornithology Any such bird (such as the parrot.)
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) Any zygodactylous bird.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. (of bird feet) having the first and fourth toes directed backward the second and third forward
Etymologies
- From zyg- + Ancient Greek δάκτυλος (dáktulos, "finger"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“According to Britannica.com this arrangement is called zygodactyl and is typical of parrots, woodpeckers, cuckoos and a few other kinds.”
New Archaeopteryx fossil provides further insight into bird, dinosaur evolution - The Panda's Thumb
“Wood peckers and other birds that climb tree trunks often have these zygodactyl toes.”
“He suggested that it evolved semi-zygodactyl feet from an anisodactyl ancestral roller because its large size and specialisation for arboreal life required improved perching abilities.”
“It's superficially similar to true rollers (Coraciidae) and ground-rollers (Brachypteraciidae) but, unlike them, has semi-zygodactyl feet (though it has frequently very depicted inaccurately by artists who, in the absence of better information, have assumed that it's anisodactyl, like true rollers).”
“Like all parrots, they are zygodactyl, having 4 toes on each foot - two front and two back.”
“Given the strong sexual dimorphism and barred, brown female plumage of the Courol, its semi-zygodactyl feet, strong, reinforced jaws, and habit of eating caterpillars, this proposed link - which, ironically, puts the Coural back where it started in 1783 - is intriguing (cuckoos have really interesting jaws, as do the possibly related turacos and hoatzins) [sexual dimorphism in the cuckoo”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘zygodactyl’.
-
come together
Origin: Gk zygÅ-, var. s. of zygoûn
to yoke,
join together
zygote, azygous, heterozygous, homozygous, zygomatic, zygoma, zygomorphic, zygodactyl, zygospore, hemiazygous, zygobranchiate, zygocactus and 3 more...
-
zygo-
relating to joining or pairing
-
bilby's Words
pandemic, whirl, guffaw, ethereal, feisty, dunt, ephemeral, pule, flipergebet, prink, maunder, gammon and 1023 more...
-
Uncle John’s Interesting Words
Words I find interesting.
abecedarius, acomoclitic, aperçu, apophenia, aspic, bêtise, bhang, callipygian, calque, carking, cataphract, ceruminous and 97 more...
-
Odd-Ball
Just plain fun to say and wonder about their origins.
rapscallion, ramahanukwanzmas, cockamamie, nincompoop, hemidemisemiquaver, antiinterdenomina..., cattywampus, ragamuffin, tatterdemalion, blunderbuss, brobdingnagian, tintinnabulation and 127 more...
-
C. S. Bird – Grandiloquent Dictionary
All the words from the Grandiloquent Dictionary.
946 of these 2700 words do not yield any results in six different dictionaries, hence many of them might be misspellings.
More in...abacinate, abcedarian, abderian, ablegate, abligurition, ablutophobia, abnormous, acarophobia, acathasia, accipitrine, accidia, accubitus and 2690 more...
-
Just Plain Weird.
Something about these words doesn't look or feel right. And yet... they're strangely appealing.
pumpkin, platypus, atlatl, pterodactyl, octopus, veldt, asparagus, aspic, lacquer, mastiff, weevil, lapis and 156 more...
-
Biology
malacological, cladistic, phenetic, phylogenetic, taxonomy, bathypelagic, superfamily, superorder, infraorder, binomen, binominal, quorum sensing and 199 more...
-
Things Avian
Wordies relating to birdies. :-)
calidrid, corvid, avian, avifauna, beak, brood, aerie, altricial, albumen, winged, wattle, covey and 217 more...
-
zzzzz...
zingy, zesty words
zephyr, xylophone, zebra, xenobiologist, zed, zaftig, zenith, zero, zilch, zipper, zeppo, zeppelin and 24 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for zygodactyl.
reesetee I have a parrotlet who scurries. Believe me, this guy scurries.
Also, he can hold his food quite well while he's eating it. Oct 27, 2009
mollusque The only flightless zygodactyl I can think of is the kakapo. I suppose with a combination of hopping and waddling, it might break into an occasional scurry. Oct 25, 2009
bilby Today's flight KX 371 by Kiwi Airlines from Auckland to Honolulu has been cancelled. Just like all the previous ones :-( Oct 25, 2009
chained_bear Mollusque... perhaps one or more of the flightless ones? Just a guess. I don't know nothin' about no flightless birds. Oct 25, 2009
milosrdenstvi Well, they share the root dactyl, from Greek daktulos, meaning "finger". Oct 25, 2009
PossibleUnderscore I came here expecting to find some sort of version of a pterodactyl. They aren't related, I'm guessing. Oct 25, 2009
mollusque Climbing yes, but which zygodactyls scurry? Oct 25, 2009
bilby Ah, thanks for that. Oct 25, 2009
reesetee For birds, it's useful for climbing tree trunks and scurrying through foliage. Oct 25, 2009
bilby Does anyone know the purpose of the nifty toe arrangement? Oct 24, 2009
reesetee Or woodpeckers. May 21, 2008
mollusque Or a parrot. May 20, 2008
reesetee It's very useful for making your feet look like those of a nuthatch. May 20, 2008
bilby This sounds like a brand-name antibiotic. May 20, 2008
seanahan Oh, like a nuthatch, that makes perfect sense...
This word is pretty fun to say though. Feb 14, 2007
trivet two toes forward, two toes backward - like a nuthatch Feb 13, 2007