crestas

Crestas is a noun used as the plural of crista in several Romance languages, notably Spanish and Portuguese. It refers to a raised line, ridge, or crest on a surface, or to crest-like features on living beings or landscapes. In geography and geology, crestas describe mountain crests or narrow ridges along rock formations. In biology and anatomy, the term can denote ridges on bones or crest-like structures such as the plumage crest on a bird or the cranial crests seen in some dinosaurs and mammals. In architecture and decorative arts, crestas may describe ornamental ridges or cresting along rooflines, parapets, or skylines.

Etymology: from Latin crista, meaning crest, ridge, or tuft. The feminine noun crista forms cresta in the plural in Spanish and Portuguese, yielding crestas. The English term crests functions as the standard plural in most contexts.

Usage notes: Crestas is common in texts written in Spanish or Portuguese and in bilingual or translated works. In English-language writing, crestas is rarely used; crests is typically employed unless the text aims to reflect the original Romance-language terminology.

See also: crest, crista, cresting.