Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Dropping off or shedding at an early stage of development, as the gills of most amphibians or the sepals or stipules of certain plants.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having a tendency to fall or decay. specifically— In zoōl., falling off; dropping a way or shedding; deciduous, as the gills of most amphibians, the milk-teeth of most mammals, the antlers of deer, etc.: synonymous with deciduous, but implying an earlier or speedler falling off.
Wiktionary
- adj. biology Of a part of an organism, disappearing in the normal course of development.
- adj. botany Tending to fall early.
GNU Webster's 1913
- (Bot. & Zoöl.) Dropping off or disappearing early, as the calyx of a poppy, or the gills of a tadpole.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. shed at an early stage of development
Etymologies
- Latin cadūcus ("falling; transitory"). (Wiktionary)
- From Latin cadūcus, falling, from cadere, to fall; see kad- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“As “cloud racks up” above the lake, the poem racks up definitions for oligotrophic, eutrophic, caducous, absyssal, meanings for Toronto and Ontario.”
“The first and the second glumes are unequal, persistent or separately caducous.”
“The _spikelets_ are small, 1/20 to 1/16 inch subsessile or pedicelled, always appressed to the rachis solitary in the upper portions of the branches, and two to five on the branchlets in the lower portion, pale, green or rarely copper coloured, oblong or lanceolate, acute or acuminate, caducous or glumes one and two persistent.”
“Flowers yellow, in racemes, with caducous bracts and bractlets.”
“-- A slender, twining plant with leaves 3 'by 1', opposite, oval, acute, entire, long petioles and caducous stipules.”
“-- A tree, 4-6 meters high, with drooping limbs; leaves long, very narrow, abruptly pinnate; many caducous leaflets, linear, elliptical.”
“Calyx with 5 erect segments, imbricated, caducous.”
“Leaves alternate, compound, digitate, caducous; leaflets 5-7 with long common petiole.”
“I anticipate another anatomical discovery, that this organ will be found to be cortical and caducous, that they are superficially morose, but at last tender-hearted, herein differing from Rome and the Latin nations.”
“Furthermore, the horns -- or rather antlers -- of the deer are caducous, shedding annually; while those of the antelopes are persistent, remaining throughout the life-time of the animal -- as with goats, sheep, and oxen.”
Quadrupeds, What They Are and Where Found A Book of Zoology for Boys
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘caducous’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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NeoVolt's Words
schadenfreude, serendipity, idiosyncrasy, loess, caducous, vagary, schematic, steeple, licentious, tangential, verisimilitude, vernacular and 385 more...
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19 c.
some of the interesting words i've had to look up while reading 19th century lit
maugre, connate, alembic, azote, vaticination, valetudinarian, dight, scutcheon, lammergeyer, chamois, asseverate, prebendary and 199 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1406 more...
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richardr's Words
marmoreal, osteology, tyromancy, metalepsis, idioglossia, tapinosis, epicaricacy, carromancy, rogation, senex, aulic, gemütlichkeit and 279 more...
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Thrown - about tossed - Words
bal-; bol-; -bol; -ble and incau(gh)tious others
ballistic, ballad, symbol, bolide, ballet, problem, ball, parabola, parable, amphibole, boule, diabolical and 184 more...
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Words encountered on freerice.com
The perfect site for any true wordie who wants to help in small ways.
amaurosis, telluric, scandent, paludal, tomalley, mithridate, adit, futhark, premorse, chigoe, chinch, ennead and 24 more...
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perhapsolutely's Words
polyradiculoneuro..., abulia, abubble, abscission, abaft, zareba, abatis, abigail, abiogenesis, ablate, ablaut, abo and 1705 more...
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edwardhenry's words
ebenezer, stentorian, artesian, hoodie, fine, chiaroscuro, oscillation, macerate, polyamory, adequite, obliterate, pathetic and 41 more...
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That Fall Off
Words meaning "that fall off"
Tweets
Looking for tweets for caducous.
ruzuzu I just thought the same thing! (Three years later.) Jan 5, 2011
chained_bear Wow. I thought this was a misspelling for caduceus. Wait... did I misspell that? Mar 11, 2008