Feathered

How to spell feathered

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce feathered

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does feathered mean?

1. adjectiveCovered with, made of, or fitted with feathers.
2. verbPast tense of to feather: to turn an oar blade flat, or to trim and blend something smoothly.

Feathered in a sentence

• adjective

  The museum displayed a beautifully feathered ceremonial headdress.

• verb

  The rower feathered the oar to cut wind resistance on the return stroke.

• adjective

  A brightly feathered parrot perched on the gardener's shoulder.

• verb

  The stylist feathered the edges of the haircut for a softer finish.

Where does feathered come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English noun fether, meaning a feather or plume, which descends from a Germanic root shared with the Dutch veer and the German Feder. That same ancient root reaches all the way back to a Proto-Indo-European source meaning 'wing' or 'to fly', a relative of the Latin penna (feather) and even the Greek pteron (wing) seen in words like pterodactyl. By adding the familiar -ed ending, English forms both the adjective 'feathered', describing something covered in or fitted with feathers, and the past tense of the verb 'to feather'. The spelling trap is the 'ea' digraph and the soft '-ther' cluster: the word is pronounced with a short 'eh' sound rather than a long 'ee', which can tempt writers toward the wrong vowel. The verb sense, as in feathering an oar or an arrow, developed naturally from the noun's link to the trimmed feathers that once steadied an arrow's flight.

How the word is built

• feather (root, from Old English fether: a plume)
• -ed (adjective/past-tense suffix)