# feather

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈfɛð.ə(ɹ)/ · frequency rank #11,379

## Definitions
1. A branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display.
2. Long hair on the lower legs of a dog or horse, especially a draft horse, notably the Clydesdale breed. Narrowly only the rear hair.
3. One of the fins or wings on the shaft of an arrow.
4. A longitudinal strip projecting from an object to strengthen it, or to enter a channel in another object and thereby prevent displacement sideways or rotationally but permit motion lengthwise.
5. Kind; nature; species (from the proverbial phrase "birds of a feather").
6. One of the two shims of the three-piece stone-splitting tool known as plug and feather or plug and feathers; the feathers are placed in a borehole and then a wedge is driven between them, causing the stone to split.
7. The angular adjustment of an oar or paddle-wheel float, with reference to a horizontal axis, as it leaves or enters the water.
8. Anything petty or trifling; a whit or jot.
9. Partridges and pheasants, as opposed to rabbits and hares (called fur).
10. A junction indicator attached to a colour-light signal at an angle, which lights up, typically with four white lights in a row, when a diverging route is set up.
11. A faint edge.

## Etymology
From Middle English feþer, from Old English feþer, from Proto-West Germanic *feþru, from Proto-Germanic *feþrō, from Proto-Indo-European *péth₂r̥ (“feather, wing”), from *peth₂- (“to fly”).
Cognate with West Frisian fear (“feather”), Cimbrian bèdara, fòdara (“pillowcase”), vèdara (“feather”), Dutch veder, veer (“feather”), German Feder (“feather”), German Low German Fedder (“feather”), Luxembourgish Fieder (“feather”), Vilamovian faoder (“feather”), Yiddish פֿעדער (feder, “feather”), Danish fjeder, fjer (“feather”), Faroese fjøður (“feather”), Icelandic fjöður (“feather”), Norwegian Bokmål fjær, fjør (“feather”), Norwegian Nynorsk fjøder, fjør (“feather”), Swedish fjäder (“feather”). Also Ancient Greek πέτομαι (pétomai, “to fly”), Albanian shpend (“bird”), Latin penna (“feather”), Old Armenian թիռ (tʻiṙ, “flight”).
The sense correlated with splines and keys (noun sense 4) probably reflects analogy with the fletching sense (noun sense 3).

## Easily confused with
- **fester** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feather-vs-fester)
- **further** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feather-vs-further)
- **flatter** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feather-vs-flatter)
- **feathered** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feather-vs-feathered)
- **father** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/father-vs-feather)
- **fatter** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fatter-vs-feather)
- **fathers** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fathers-vs-feather)
- **farther** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/farther-vs-feather)

## Common misspellings (10)
`efather`, `faether`, `feahter`, `featehr`, `featherr`, `feathher`, `feathre`, `featther`, `fetaher`, `ffeather`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/feather