Definitions for operculum

• Definition
• Anagrams (317)

operculum o·per·cu·lum

Spelling: [oh-pur-kyuh-luh m]

IPA: /oʊˈpɜr kyə ləm/

Operculum is a 9 letter English word. It's valid Words with friends word worth 21 points.

You can make 317 anagrams from letters in operculum (celmopruu).

Definitions for operculum

noun

1. Botany, Zoology. a part or organ serving as a lid or cover, as a covering flap on a seed vessel.
2. 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.

Origin of operculum

1705-15; New Latin, Latin: lid, cover, equivalent to oper(īre) to cover + -culum -cule²

Examples for operculum

Their gill-clefts are covered by an operculum, and they have a well-developed air-bladder.

The outer lip is also thickened and bent inward, and there is no operculum.

Aperture quadrilateral, closed by an operculum of four valves.

In Cryptohelia the cyclosystem is covered by a cap or operculum.

The animal is said to resemble a Cyclostoma, but has no operculum.

The aperture is large, and completely closed by the operculum.

This flap, an outgrowth of the hyoid arch, is known as the operculum.

There is no operculum and no representative of the maxilla or premaxillae.

Sometimes, however, its form is conical or spiral, with or without an operculum.

The operculum fits the entrance to its shell like a trap door.