rafter

Imagine the skeleton of a roof: those long sloping beams that help hold it up are called rafters. They are a basic part of many houses, barns, and sheds, running up from the walls toward the top of the roof.

The word also has another common use: a rafter can be a person riding or traveling on a raft, especially on a river trip. In a much rarer and more old-fashioned sense, a group of turkeys can also be called a rafter, probably linked to the way birds rest up high on beams.

A rafter is most often a structural part of a roof: a long sloping beam that helps support the roof covering and carry its weight down toward the walls. If you look up into an unfinished attic or an old barn, the angled wooden pieces you see are often rafters. They are a key part of the frame that gives a roof its shape and strength.

The word is also used for a person who rides on a raft, especially someone taking part in river rafting. In that sense, you might hear about rafters moving through white-water rapids or floating downstream on a guided trip. This is a normal modern use and appears often in travel, outdoor, and sports writing.

There is also a rare collective-noun use: a rafter can mean a group of turkeys. That meaning is much less common than the building sense and the rafting sense, but you may still see it in word lists or playful writing about animal group names. So depending on the context, the word may point to part of a roof, a person on a raft, or, more rarely, a flock of turkeys.