operculum
Americannoun
plural
opercula, operculums-
Botany, Zoology. a part or organ serving as a lid or cover, as a covering flap on a seed vessel.
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Zoology.
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the gill cover of fishes and amphibians.
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(in many gastropods) a horny plate that closes the opening of the shell when the animal is retracted.
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noun
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zoology
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the hard bony flap covering the gill slits in fishes
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the bony plate in certain gastropods covering the opening of the shell when the body is withdrawn
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botany the covering of the spore-bearing capsule of a moss
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biology any other covering or lid in various organisms
plural
opercula-
A lid or flap covering an opening, such as the gill cover in some fish or the horny flap covering the opening of a snail.
Other Word Forms
- opercular adjective
Etymology
Origin of operculum
1705–15; < New Latin, Latin: lid, cover, equivalent to oper ( īre ) to cover + -culum -cule 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Amphibians also have an auricular operculum, which is an extra bone in the ear that transmits sounds to the inner ear.
From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015
The genus Eucalyptus is named for its unusual floral structure derived from the Greek eu-, well, and kaluptos, covered, which refers to the operculum that covers the floral buds before anthesis.
From Nature • Jun. 10, 2014
Water is drawn over gills that are located in chambers covered and ventilated by a protective, muscular flap called the operculum.
From Textbooks • Apr. 25, 2013
The neural activity evoked by pictures of high-calorie food was stronger in specific parts of the brain — the bilateral insula and frontal operculum — than when low-calorie foods were viewed.
From Nature • Jun. 25, 2012
In a similar way the spout of the operculum is joined by linen covered with lute to another glass ampulla which receives the distilled aqua.
From De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 by Agricola, Georgius
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.