Word.ws English Dictionary

crossopterygian

crossopterygian adjective: of or pertaining to the Crossopterygii, an infraclass of bony fish.

Adjective

crossopterygian (not comparable)

  1. Of or pertaining to the Crossopterygii, an infraclass of bony fish.
    • One consequence was that the crossopterygian fishes (distantly related to the famous ‘living fossil’ coelacanth Latimeria) were dethroned from their privileged position as ancestors.2000, Richard Fortey, “No Such Thing as a Fish”, in London Review of Books, volume 22, number 13

Noun

crossopterygian (plural crossopterygians)

  1. One of the Crossopterygii.

Forms of crossopterygian

pluralcrossopterygians

Origin of crossopterygian

From Crossopterygia + -an, Greek krossoí “tassels, fringe” + -o- + pterýgion “little wing or fin,” equivalent to pteryg- (stem of pterýx) “wing, fin” + -ion + -an.

Questions about crossopterygian

What does crossopterygian mean?
Crossopterygian means of or pertaining to the Crossopterygii, an infraclass of bony fish.
What part of speech is crossopterygian?
Crossopterygian can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near crossopterygian in the dictionary

  1. crossnumbers
  2. crossognathiform
  3. crossognathiforms
  4. Crosson
  5. Crossons
  6. crossopterygian
  7. crossopterygians
  8. crossout
  9. crossouts
  10. crossover
  11. crossover airspeed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crossopterygian (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “crossopterygian.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crossopterygian. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.