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vestigial
[ ve-stij-ee-uhl, -stij-uhl ]
adjective
- of, relating to, or of the nature of a vestige:
a vestigial tail.
vestigial
/ vĕ-stĭj′ē-əl /
- Relating to a body part that has become small and lost its use because of evolutionary change. Whales, for example, have small bones located in the muscles of their body walls that are vestigial bones of hips and hind limbs.
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Other Words From
- ves·tigi·al·ly adverb
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Word History and Origins
Origin of vestigial1
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Example Sentences
Ensembles are of vestigial interest in this new pop culture.
Such myths, Manchester argues, may be vestigial in the modern era, but they remain vital to the cohesion of a culture.
The scandals now reverberating through Washington reduce to zero any last vestigial possibility of further action on jobs.
Because a foodie is a mouth with a vestigial person attached, one might think so.
It is safe to suppose that our needs are like those of the race and that in us nothing is vestigial that is active in others.
Or, on the other hand, may not such faculty be regarded not as vestigial, but as rudimentary?
Whatever lightness or joy survived was the meaningless vestigial twitching of an obsolete organ.
We now call these toes "vestigial," and know the pig's ancestors used them, walking on four toes and not on two, as at present.
Similar vestigial teeth, 5-40 in number, sometimes occur in goosebeaked whales (p. 70).
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