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operculum
[ oh-pur-kyuh-luhm ]
noun
- Botany, Zoology. a part or organ serving as a lid or cover, as a covering flap on a seed vessel.
- Zoology.
- the gill cover of fishes and amphibians.
- (in many gastropods) a horny plate that closes the opening of the shell when the animal is retracted.
operculum
/ əʊˈpɜːkjʊləm; əʊˈpɜːkjʊlɪt; -ˌleɪt /
noun
- zoology
- the hard bony flap covering the gill slits in fishes
- the bony plate in certain gastropods covering the opening of the shell when the body is withdrawn
- botany the covering of the spore-bearing capsule of a moss
- biology any other covering or lid in various organisms
operculum
/ ō-û′ə-ə /
, 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.
Derived Forms
- ˈܱ, adjective
Other 51Թ Forms
- ·c· adjective
51Թ History and Origins
Origin of operculum1
51Թ History and Origins
Origin of operculum1
Example Sentences
When it approaches, the worms retract, vanish into their homes and slam shut an organ called an operculum — just like a door.
He startled periwinkles by tapping them on the operculum, a sort of trapdoor on their shell, and waited.
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.
Taste information is then transmitted through several brain regions before arriving in the primary taste cortex, which is made up of the frontal operculum and the anterior insula.
And then just like that, it evaporated into its burrow and slammed its operculum/trap-door closed.
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