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polydactyl

polydactyl

1 9.3
Having more than the usual number of fingers or toes
  • adjective
  • /ˌpɒlɪˈdæktɪl/
  • Specialized
: polidáctilo
  • Many polydactyl animals, such as certain breeds of cats, have extra toes that aid in climbing.

No, what you guys, they they're called like polydactyl and I found one on Petfinder recently.

Examples

  • He looks like a male Siamese with polydactyl feet.

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  • The cat was polydactyl, having six toes on each paw instead of the usual five.

  • No, what you guys, they they're called like polydactyl and I found one on Petfinder recently.

  • She adopted a polydactyl kitten that quickly became her beloved pet.

Synonyms

polydactylous
vspolydactyl
  • Specialized
9.9

Having more than the usual number of fingers or toes

is the same idea but applies more generally to any hand or foot

Surface Forms

polydactyl positive

Morphology

polydactyl = dactyl (opaque) = poly + dactyl

Although the word is built from the prefix 'poly-' and a form of 'dactyl', an average learner will not recover the meaning 'having extra fingers or toes' from those parts.

Etymology

Polydactyl comes from two Greek parts: poly meaning 'many' and dactyl meaning 'finger', so you can remember it as 'many digits' or think of the word digit. So it means a person or animal has extra fingers or toes.