Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Plumage |
PlumageNoun1. The light horny waterproof structure forming the external covering of birds. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "plumage" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references) |
Etymology: Plumage \Plum"age\, noun. [French expression, from plume feather.]. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A feather is one of the epidermal growths that forms the distinctive outer covering on a bird.Feathers, which originate from the scales of reptiles, are the most complicated integumentary structure among the vertebrates. Like hair, nails and scales, feathers are integumentary appendages; skin organs that form by controlled proliferation of cells in the epidermis, or outer skin layer, that produce keratin proteins. They insulate birds from water and cold temperatures and provide colour which is sometimes used as camouflage against predators and sometimes as a means of visual communication. Although individual feathers are very light, a bird's plumage weighs two or three times more than its skeleton.
There are two basic types of feather; vaned feathers which cover exterior of the body and down feathers which are underneath the vaned feathers providing an insulating layer. The vaned feathers include the remiges (flight-feathers), the rectrices (tail-feathers) and the contour feathers which are distributed over the whole body. A typical feather features a main shaft, called the rachis. Fused to the rachis are a series of branches, or barbs, the barbs themselves are also branched and form the barbules. At the base of the feather, the rachis expands to form the hollow tubular calamus, or quill, which inserts into a follicle in the skin.
A bird’s feathers are replaced periodically during its life through molt, new feathers are formed through the same follicle from which the old ones were fledged.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Feather."
Synonyms: PlumageSynonyms: feather (n), plume (n). (additional references) |
| Synonym by domain: feathering (biology & biotechnology). |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Roughness | Plumage, plumosity; plume, panache, crest; feather, tuft, fringe, toupee. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Plumage |
| Specialty definitions using "plumage": Birds ♦ Corneille d'Esope ♦ Gallus Numidicus ♦ hummingbirds ♦ jacutinga ♦ Peacock ♦ trogons. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "plumage": Plumery. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Plumage" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses. French (feathering, plumage). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Borrowed Plumage (1917) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Rhodostethia rosea, male, adult in winter plumage. In: "Report of the International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow ...." Expedition leader Lieutenant P. H. Ray. Published in 1885. Library Call Number Q115.I6 U6 1885. Credit: Treasures of the Library. |  | Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. The Bald Eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, adults (more than 5 years old) are unmistakable with dark brown plumage except for white head, neck and tails. The beak, eyes, legs, and feet are yellow. Wing span up to 2.5 meters, with females considerably larger than males. Immature eagles lack white plumage and yellow accents. Credit: National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR). |
 | North Inlet - Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. These dark-colored white ibis chicks will not get their adult plumage for two years. Their parents feed them crawfish from freshwater wetlands, when available. As juveniles and adults, they feed mostly on fiddler crabs. Credit: National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR). |  | Plucked of his plumage. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Plumage" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.50% of the time. "Plumage" is used about 267 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.5% | 263 | 18,193 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 1.12% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.37% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 267 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "plumage": winter-plumage. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
plumage | 17 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "plumage"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | pupël (down, eider down, feather, feathering, panache, plume, quill, shuttlecock, vane), pendë (barrage, dam, dike, embankment, feather, fin, mole, pinion, plume, quill, seawall, sluice, span, Weir, yoke). (various references) | |
Arabic | ريش الطيور. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | перушина (coat, feather, feathering, plume). (various references) | |
Chinese | 羽毛 (feather, plume), 全身羽毛. (various references) | |
Czech | peří (feather, plume). (various references) | |
Danish | fjerdragt (feathering). (various references) | |
Dutch | gevederte (feathering). (various references) | |
Farsi | پرهای زینتی , پروبال , پرشاهین . (various references) | |
Finnish | höyhenpuku. (various references) | |
French | plumage (plucking). (various references) | |
German | Gefieder (feathering, feathers). (various references) | |
Greek | φτέρωμα, φτερά. (various references) | |
Hebrew | וצות "עוף. (various references) | |
Hungarian | tollazat (feather, feathering, plume). (various references) | |
Indonesian | bulu burung. (various references) | |
Italian | piumaggio (feathering). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 羽振り (influence, power), 羽毛 (down, feathers), 羽毛 (down, feathers). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | うもう (down, feathers), はぶり (influence, power). (various references) | |
Manx | clooie (bloom, down, feather, fluff, fur, fuzz, pubes). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | umageplay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | plumagem (covert, feather, indumentum, plume). (various references) | |
Romanian | penaj (coat, feather, feathering, plume). (various references) | |
Russian | оперение (coverts, empennage, feathering, indumentum), перья (hackle). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | perje (feathering). (various references) | |
Spanish | plumaje (plume). (various references) | |
Swedish | fjäderdräkt (feathering, feathers, indumentum). (various references) | |
Turkish | tüyler (cilia, feathering, hairs, plumery, pubescence), kuşun tüyleri. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | оперення (dress, plume), наряд. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "plumage": plumaged, plumages. (additional references) | |
| |
"Plumage" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: piumage, pluage, plundge, Poujade. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "plumage" (pronounced pluw"muj) |
| 3 | -m u j | damage, homage, image, pilgrimage. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-g-l-m-p-u" | |
-1 letter: ampule, plague. | |
-2 letters: algum, almug, ample, ampul, gleam, glume, maple, plage, plume, ulema. | |
-3 letters: ague, alme, alum, egal, gale, game, gamp, gape, gaum, geum, glue, glum, gulp, lame, lamp, leap, luge, lump, mage, male, maul, meal, mule, page, pale, palm, peag, peal, plea, plug, plum, pula, pule, puma. | |
-4 letters: age, ale, alp, amp, amu. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-g-l-m-p-u" | |
+1 letter: plumaged, plumages. | |
+2 letters: galumphed, multipage. | |
+3 letters: impugnable, promulgate. | |
+4 letters: aspergillum, pelargonium, promulgated, promulgates. | |
+5 letters: aspergillums, gamopetalous, pelargoniums, pneumatology, rampageously. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
