cloaca

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The Etruscans appear to have taken very great pains with the drainage of their cities; on many sites the cloaca are the only remains of their former industry and greatness which remain.

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Definitions (14)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A sewer or latrine.
  2. noun Zoology The common cavity into which the intestinal, genital, and urinary tracts open in vertebrates such as fish, reptiles, birds, and some primitive mammals.
  3. noun Zoology The posterior part of the intestinal tract in various invertebrates.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (8)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • He met there many men of a certain literary eminence; Cotter Morison, for instance, of whom he sometimes spoke to me, especially of his once characterising a social chatterer as a cloaca maxima of small talk. —  THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY MAITLAND
  • During weaning the joey eats partially-digested eucalyptus that merges from mother's cloaca, thus receiving bacteria needed for digestion as well as food. —  xml's Blinklist.com
  • Wim's Cloaca machine (cloaca is a zoological term for the posterior opening of animals) was fed meals twice a day. —  Neatorama
  • Although the turtle can take in air from its nostrils, the second breathing method allows it to also absorb air from water that flows in through its behind, via an organ called the cloaca. —  Discovery Channel :: Top Highlights
  • The urinary and genital ducts open separately into this cloaca, and dorsally and posteriorly to the anus. —  Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata
 

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This word has been looked up 111 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin cloāca, sewer, canal.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French cloaque = Spanish Portuguese Italian cloaca = German kloake = Danish kloak, from Latin cloaca, a common sewer, prob. from Old Latin cluere, cleanse.
 

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/kləˈeɪkə/
by American Heritage

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