Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Wedge-shaped.
  • adjective Of or relating to any of various related writing systems of the ancient Near East having characters formed by the arrangement of small wedge-shaped elements and used to write Sumerian, Akkadian, Elamite, Hittite, Old Persian, and other languages.
  • adjective Relating to, composed in, or using such characters.
  • adjective Anatomy Of, relating to, or being a wedge-shaped bone or cartilage.
  • noun Cuneiform writing.
  • noun Anatomy A wedge-shaped bone, especially one of three such bones in the tarsus of the foot.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having the shape or form of a wedge; cuneate.
  • In entomology, said of parts or joints which are attached by a thin but broad base, and thicken gradually to a suddenly truncated apex, In anatomy, applied to certain wedge-shaped carpal and tarsal bones. See phrases below.
  • Occupied with or versed in the wedge-shaped characters, or the inscriptions written in them: as, “a cuneiform scholar,”
  • noun A cuneiform bone: as, the three cuneiforms of the foot.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Wedge-shaped; ; -- especially applied to the wedge-shaped or arrowheaded characters of ancient Persian and Assyrian inscriptions. See arrowheaded.
  • adjective Pertaining to, or versed in, the ancient wedge-shaped characters, or the inscriptions in them.
  • noun The wedge-shaped characters used in ancient Persian and Assyrian inscriptions.
  • noun One of the three tarsal bones supporting the first, second third metatarsals. They are usually designated as external, middle, and internal, or ectocuniform, mesocuniform, and entocuniform, respectively.
  • noun One of the carpal bones usually articulating with the ulna; -- called also pyramidal and ulnare.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having the form of a wedge; wedge-shaped.
  • adjective Written in the cuneiform writing system.
  • adjective Relating to, or versed in, the ancient cuneiform writing system or its inscriptions.
  • noun An ancient Mesopotamian writing system, adapted within several language families, originating as pictograms in Sumer around the 30th century BC, evolving into more abstract and characteristic wedge shapes formed by a blunt reed stylus on clay tablets.
  • noun anatomy A wedge-shaped bone, especially a cuneiform bone.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective shaped like a wedge
  • noun an ancient wedge-shaped script used in Mesopotamia and Persia
  • adjective of or relating to the tarsal bones (or other wedge-shaped bones)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin cuneus, wedge + –form.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French cunéiforme or New Latin cuneiformis, from Classical Latin cuneus ("wedge") + -iform.

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