Word.ws English Dictionary

phorusrhacid

phorusrhacid noun: any of the extinct flightless birds of the family Phorusrhacidae, which inhabited South America from the early Cenozoic era until about 0.1 million years ago.

Noun

phorusrhacid (plural phorusrhacids)

  1. Any of the extinct flightless birds of the family Phorusrhacidae, which inhabited South America from the early Cenozoic era until about 0.1 million years ago.
    • Phorusrhacids have excellent eyesight, so as the Earth continues its path around the sun, and the seasons change, the darkness will not be an encumbrance.2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherworlds, Penguin, published 2023, page 90
    Synonyms:
    terror bird

Synonyms of phorusrhacid

Forms of phorusrhacid

pluralphorusrhacids

Questions about phorusrhacid

What does phorusrhacid mean?
Phorusrhacid means any of the extinct flightless birds of the family Phorusrhacidae, which inhabited South America from the early Cenozoic era until about 0.1 million years ago.
What part of speech is phorusrhacid?
Phorusrhacid is a noun.
What is the plural of phorusrhacid?
The plural of phorusrhacid is phorusrhacids.

Words near phorusrhacid in the dictionary

  1. phoropter
  2. phoropters
  3. phororachus
  4. phorozooid
  5. phorozooids
  6. phorusrhacid
  7. phorusrhacids
  8. phos
  9. phosacetim
  10. phosalone
  11. phoscorite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: phorusrhacid (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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