Word.ws English Dictionary

neoptile

neoptile noun: the down or light, fluffy feathers on a young bird.

Noun

neoptile (uncountable)

  1. The down or light, fluffy feathers on a young bird.
    • Newly hatched young are naked and pink, but within a few days a short white down known as the neoptile unfolds from the skin (Kniprath & Stier 2008).2012, Barn Owl Trust, Barn Owl Conservation Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Ecologists, Surveyors, Land Managers and Ornithologists
    • Among the neoptile feathers occur isolated bristle-like filaments, whose origin and function are unclear.2017 June 28, Hanneke Meijer, The Guardian

Origin of neoptile

From neo- + -ptile, literally "new down".

Questions about neoptile

What does neoptile mean?
Neoptile means the down or light, fluffy feathers on a young bird.
What part of speech is neoptile?
Neoptile is a noun.

Words near neoptile in the dictionary

  1. neopterans
  2. neopterin
  3. neopterous
  4. neopterygian
  5. neopterygians
  6. neoptile
  7. Neoptolemus
  8. neopullulanase
  9. neopullulanases
  10. neopulmo
  11. neopulmonic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: neoptile (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.

Last updated:

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