OPERCULUM • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Operculum

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noun

Operculum n. (pl. L. opercula, E. operculums)

(Bot.)

(a)

The lid of a pitcherform leaf.

(b)

The lid of the urnlike capsule of mosses.

(Anat.)

(a)

Any lidlike or operculiform process or part; as, the opercula of a dental follicle.

(b)

The fold of integument, usually supported by bony plates, which protects the gills of most fishes and some amphibians; the gill cover; the gill lid.

(c)

The principal opercular bone in the upper and posterior part of the gill cover.

(Zool.)

(a)

The lid closing the aperture of various species of shells, as the common whelk.

(b)

Any lid-shaped structure closing the aperture of a tube or shell.

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Etymology of 'Operculum'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Operculum" Quotes from Famous Books

... minute, broadly funnel-shaped, stipitate. The peridium simple, variously colored by innate lime granules, opening by a regular cap or operculum, brownish white, darkest in the centre, always more or less convex; stipe equalling the cup in height, dark brown, longitudinally ridged; the capillitium a close-meshed network, with small rounded or slightly angular masses of ochre-brown lime-granules, larger toward the centre; spores ...

— The North American Slime-Moulds • Thomas H. (Thomas Huston) MacBride

Words linked to "Operculum" : plate