Definition of "alula" [al•u•la]

• A small joint in the middle of a bird's wing, homologous with the thumb and bearing three or four quill-like feathers. Also called bastard wing, spurious wing. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Viki remembers the mysterious figure in the dark calling her 'alula' and, as she does some research, the first of a series of startling events that will change her life forever unfold."
• "But the alula opened properly and I decided I must have been overcontrolling, easy to do with Storer-Gulls; they're extremely maneuverable."
• "Two years ago a boy who had just graduated from orange wings tried it ... knocked off his left alula and primaries on a strut -- went fluttering and spinning down two thousand feet and crashed."