A transitional intermediate refers to an organism that shows characteristics different from the norm, theoretically because these organisms are a link in the transitional path between two different types of animals. By this definition, only a handful of potential subjects have been discovered – compared to the millions of transitional life forms that would have to have existed had macroevolution been true.
However, evolutionists sometimes use the term transitional intermediates to describe a fully-formed animal, if they believe that animal may be on the transitional path between two other animals. So, by this definition, a lizard could be considered to be on the evolutionary path between a turtle and a bird, and would be considered a transitional intermediate. This would greatly increase the number of supporting fossils.