Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Botany One of the secondary divisions of a binnately compound leaf.
  • noun Zoology A small featherlike part or subdivision of an appendage, especially one of the small branches on the arm of a crinoid.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A pinnula.
  • noun In ichthyology, specifically, a small fin-like appendage.
  • noun In botany, a secondary pinna; one of the pinnately disposed divisions of a pinna: noting especially the ultimate divisions of the frond in ferns. Also pinnula. See cuts under indusium and Nothochlæna.
  • noun A small pin fixed upon a pre-telescopic astronomical instrument and serving, like the sight of a gun, to enable the observer to make an accurate pointing upon a star or other celestial object.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) One of the small divisions of a decompound frond or leaf. See Illust. of Bipinnate leaf, under bipinnate.
  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of a series of small, slender organs, or parts, when arranged in rows so as to have a plumelike appearance

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun botany Any of the ultimate leaflets of a bipinnate or tripinnate leaf; a subleaflet.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun division of a usually pinnately divided leaf

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin pinnula, diminutive of pinna, feather; see pet- in Indo-European roots.]

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