Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See earwax.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Ear-wax; the wax-like substance secreted by numerous glands situated in the external meatus of the ear. It is a mixture mainly of fats and soaps, with some coloring matter. It acts as a lubricant, and by its peculiar bitterness is supposed to prevent the entrance of insects.
Wiktionary
- n. Earwax.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Physiol.) The yellow, waxlike secretion from the glands of the external ear; the earwax.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a soft yellow wax secreted by glands in the ear canal
Etymologies
- New Latin, from Latin cēra, wax; see cerate. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The outer part of the ear canal secretes earwax, officially called cerumen, in order to trap water, dust, and bacteria.”
“Ear wax, which is clinically referred to as cerumen, has many purposes which include cleaning and lubricating the ear canal, antimicrobrial properties, anti-fungal properties, and it has been suggested that it acts as an insect repellant.”
“The skincovering the outer part of the ear canalcontains special glands that produce ear wax, a sticky, waxy substance also known as cerumen which is different [...]”
“The skincovering the outer part of the ear canalcontains special glands that produce ear wax, a sticky, waxy substance also known as cerumen which is different from candle wax (paraffin).”
“Rob over at Musings of a Distractible Mind was writing about ear wax -- also known as "cerumen" to those of us in the med biz -- and I was reminded of a nifty answer I came up with to one of my kids' questions several years back.”
“252 THE HUMAN BRAIN soft, waxy material called cerumen (see-roo'men; "wax" L), though earwax is its common name.”
“She delicately scrapes cerumen from sleeping people's ears.”
“I would be most pleased by discussions of such phenomena as the extraction of impacted cerumen, the holes left after teeth have been pulled, and perhaps the process of extracting a very long green bean from a nostril.”
“Asians, Inuit and Native North Americans have predominantly dry earwax, as they have a gene that prevents cerumen from mixing with their earwax.”
“They found that many East Asians have a mutation in this gene that prevents cerumen, the molecule that makes earwax wet, from entering the mix.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cerumen’.
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SCIE - Be the first...
... to use these words in spoken English and reap esteem. In the SPOKEN corpus of the COCA (full corpus: 450 million words) none of these occur.
stochastic, disputant, state-led, almshouse, exceptionality, bibliographical, t-test, z-score, personal/social, neoplastic, stroma, ludic and 288 more...
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The Whole Ball of Wax
Feel free to wax poetic.
the whole ball of..., wax poetic, wax, beeswax, ambergris, cedar waxwing, sealing wax, earwax, paraffin, bougie, epicuticular wax, waxing gibbous moon and 192 more...
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phrontistery - c
from phrontistery.info
czardas, cytometer, cytology, cytheromania, cystoscope, cystolith, cyrenaic, cypseline, cyprinoid, cyphonism, cynophobia, cytogenesis and 1298 more...
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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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SCIE - neurology
abducens.....draw..., ablation.....carr..., acetylcholine......., adrenalin.....nea..., afferent.....to c..., agnosia.....no kn..., alar.....wing-like, alexia.....no words, alveus.....canal, amacrine.....no l..., ambidextrous........, ambiguus.....doub... and 701 more...
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Creepy Accretions
Substances that accumulate on the human body, whether we want them to or not.
smegma, toejam, earwax, dingleberries, fromunda cheese, cerumen, sleep, rheum, mucopurulent disc..., navel wool, dandruff, sweat and 9 more...
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It Has a Name??
Yes. Yes it does.
aglet, armsaye, scroop, rowel, ferrule, rasceta, chanking, philtrum, frenulum, keeper, agelast, punt and 285 more...
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Ear Ear!
Ear words and phrases. A companion piece to b-see--the-eyes-have-it-b and the-nose-knows.
earmuffs, earmuffed, earmark, earring, earful, earphones, earbuds, earloop, earworm, earpiece, earplugs, ear-rent and 109 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2014 more...
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grassdog's Words
schadenfreude, sanguine, nefarious, verisimilitude, antediluvian, salacious, obfuscate, plethora, cacophony, defenestration, vacillate, blasphemy and 478 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3248 more...
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prakash's Words
omphaloskepsis, eleemosynary, pogonotomy, pogonotrophy, zenzizenzizenzic, cerumen, abiogenesis, zymurgy, syzygy, deuteranopia, agathokakological, vomitorium and 28 more...
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Dewdew Drops
Human body sheddings, secretions, and offscum. Sometimes we gotta exuviate!
off the gound is a list of eye booger words made by trivet.dandruff, scurf, pityriasis capitis, furfuration, hair, saliva, salivation, expectoration, gleeking, halitosis, carbon dioxide, tears and 85 more...
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Seriously? No, not really.
Serious-sounding "conditions" which are perfectly normal.
deglutition, sternutation, pandiculation, tussis, borborygmus, lacrimation, singultus, stertor, eructation, flatus, sudation, pruritus and 25 more...
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rduke's Words
misguggle, ken, sere, etiolated, gelid, digladiate, popinjay, bathykolpian, conglaciation, hyperborean, callipygian, vagile and 1253 more...
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herotuesday's Words
butyraceous, thrasonical, turgid, ululate, irenic, punctilio, discombobulate, ecdysiast, formicate, favonian, agnate, erubescence and 614 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cerumen.
reesetee *feels vaguely nauseated* Apr 7, 2008
chained_bear Does that mean that the cholesterol in your ears is actually siphoning it off from your bloodstream? Like, the more bacon cheeseburgers you eat, the more cerumen you produce? Apr 6, 2008
frindley One of the primary ingredients of earwax is cholesterol. Indeed, I read somewhere that earwax represents the highest concentration of cholesterol anywhere in the body. Is this at all comforting to those who have been told to reduce their cholesterol levels, I wonder? Probably not. Apr 6, 2008
reesetee I kid you not. This is earstuff. Feb 23, 2007
chained_bear Dude. I thought ear wax was just called ear wax. This doesn't *sound* like it means ear wax at all. It sounds like some kind of nice blue color, or else a substance used in drugs and obtained from plants or something. Like, a dyestuff.
Gawd, I *hope* they don't use ear wax as a dyestuff... Feb 23, 2007
reesetee Ear wax. Yuck. Feb 23, 2007