Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having no columns along the sides. Used especially of a classical temple.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Destitute of wings.
  • In architecture, applied to a temple or other building which has no columns on the flanks, but may have a portico at one or at each end: opposed to peripteral, surrounded by columns. See prostyle and amphiprostyle.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Apterous.
  • adjective (Arch.) Without lateral columns; -- applied to buildings which have no series of columns along their sides, but are either prostyle or amphiprostyle, and opposed to peripteral.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective zoology apterous
  • adjective architecture Without lateral columns; applied to buildings which have no series of columns along their sides, but are either prostyle or amphiprostyle.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having columns at one or both ends but not along the sides
  • adjective (of insects) without wings

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Greek apteros, wingless : a-, without; see a– + pteron, wing; see –pter.]

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Examples

  • Renee DeCarlo it was quick, it was quiet, it was fast; a blue view of small proportions .... gaze inside a day when the sun shines a bright blue blessing of clear skies and the ease of breathing is all but forgotten. fixed on the soft buzz of an upward motion the hem of his slightly frayed blue jeans wrapped around my imagination and so began the baffling alchemy of apteral aeronautics once again pulling the strings of a sleepy distracted life. sensing a draw between yes and no the arousing sound of crimson fire and gritty dust stung my watery eyes creating a revolving revolution amidst the stomping of unified feet. powerless to refuse the motion of forward my numb bare feet shuffled to the plaintive chant echoed in the ancient ritual of fire. attending to the tribal embrace the bombardment of countless voices revealed hidden stories in a mesh of rattling shells drenching the crowded air.

    The Clarity of Night 2009

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