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  1. acephalous love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Biology Headless or lacking a clearly defined head: acephalous worms.
  2. adj. Having no leader.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Without a head; headless: applied In zoology, particularly to the members of the class Acephala (which see): opposed to encephalous and cephalous.
  2. Without a leader or chief.
  3. Wanting a distinct beginning; indefinite in subject.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Headless
  2. adj. zoology Without a distinct head; -- a term applied to bivalve mollusks.
  3. adj. botany Having the style spring from the base, instead of from the apex, as is the case in certain ovaries
  4. adj. Without a leader or chief.
  5. adj. Wanting the beginning
  6. adj. prosody Deficient in the beginning, as a line of poetry that is missing its expected opening syllable - Brande

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Headless.
  2. adj. (Zoöl.) Without a distinct head; -- a term applied to bivalve mollusks.
  3. adj. (Bot.) Having the style spring from the base, instead of from the apex, as is the case in certain ovaries.
  4. adj. Without a leader or chief.
  5. adj. Wanting the beginning.
  6. adj. (Pros.) Deficient at the beginning, as a line of poetry.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. lacking a head or a clearly defined head

Etymologies

  1. From French acéphale, from Ancient Greek ἀκέφαλος (akephalos, "headless"), from ἀ- ("not") + κεφαλή (kephalē, "head"). (Wiktionary)
  2. From Medieval Latin acephalus, from Greek akephalos : a-, without; see a-1 + kephalē, head; see -cephalous. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “The state had been erected upon lessons learned through centuries trying to maintain peace within an insular acephalous tribal society with a penchant for infighting and was most functional when it resembled a "loose" confederation in which legislative and judicial powers were pushed down to the local level - a concept analogous to America's states' rights.”

    The Huffington Post: Michael Hughes: Afghanistan Corrupted by U.S. and 30 Years of Foreign Meddling

  • “John: another of their great exchanges (about then Brave Jeff Francoeur) was preserved here at blog I can't link to, but if you Google "Hernandez awkward introductions acephalous" you can find it. keith hernandez and his dog, duncan”

    The Anti-Homers

  • “This excerpt sums up the modus operandi of a rogue vice presidency in an at-times acephalous executive branch:”

    William E. Jackson Jr.: The Vices of Cheney: The Burden is Upon the House Judiciary Committee

  • “On the one hand, by providing formerly acephalous societies with formal leaders and symbols of legitimate (that is, VOC-enforced) authority, the company managed to integrate these societies into a greater chain of command: Elders commanded villages, governor commanded elders, governor-general commanded governor, etc.”

    How Taiwan Became Chinese

  • “Note 53: As Blussé shows, the lack of headmen was a problem from the start for the missionaries, who found it nearly impossible to enforce Christian conduct in such an acephalous society.”

    How Taiwan Became Chinese

  • “The admirable phrase, “A man with a special subject,” might have been invented on purpose for these acephalous species in the domain of literature and politics.”

    A Woman of Thirty

  • “A clumsy affair called a catamaran, the acephalous ancestor of the torpedo, was expected to relieve the sea of some thousands of people who had no business there.”

    Springhaven

  • ““Eaten him?” said the nightmare at his ear; and he sickened for an instant at the idea of rent, human remains absorbed and crushed into all that acephalous clockwork.”

    The Complete Father Brown

  • “Eaten him?" said the nightmare at his ear; and he sickened for an instant at the idea of rent, human remains absorbed and crushed into all that acephalous clockwork.”

    The Father Brown Omnibus

  • “In contrast, we know relatively little about acephalous societies, although the archaeological excavations at Igbo - Ukwe in southeastern Nigeria demonstrate that complex political organizations may have existed even in societies without rulers.”

    3. Historical Trends, 1000-1500

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synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. headless

equivalents (1)

Other words for ‘acephalous’

  1. headless

same context (14)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. testaceous
  2. overwound
  1. two-month-old
  2. seven-month
  1. bivalve
  2. intrauterine
  1. trimester
  2. ill-regulated
  1. Lil
  2. transgenic
  1. well-oiled
  2. develop
  1. bally
  2. malformed

reverse dictionary (27)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. acefalous
  2. acephalic
  3. encephalous
  4. peracephalus
  5. acephalate
  1. amyaria
  2. dreissenacea
  3. endocephalous
  4. ervilia
  5. heteromyaria
  1. lamellipedia
  2. lipocephalous
  3. acephalous
  4. tunicata
  5. acephalophora
  1. arcidæ
  2. asiphonata
  3. auricularia
  4. cephalous
  5. headless
  1. limidæ
  2. mactracea
  3. metarrhiptæ
  4. nucula
  5. palpus
  1. pelecypoda
  2. ambonychiidæ

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  • mollusque What marvel, that we have sold our birth-right to an acephalous mollusk, when the simple use of the tongue has passed into such headless mongreldom?
    --Richard Blackmore, 1884, Tommy Upmore Nov 10, 2007

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‘acephalous’ has been looked up 2380 times, added to 18 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 17.