Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A lunula.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Something in the shape of a little moon or crescent. In conchology, the lunula, a crescentic impression on each valve of many bivalve shells, in front of the umbo, forming with its fellow an oval or somewhat cordate figure; it is conspicuous in the Veneridæ and many related forms.
- n. One of the perforations formed by the union of digitate processes of the test of certain thin forms of echinoids, as Rotula Augusti.
Wiktionary
- n. Anything crescent-shaped; a crescent-shaped part or mark; a lunula or lune.
- n. A special area in front of the beak of many bivalve shells, sometimes shaped like a double crescent, but more often heart-shaped.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Anat.) Anything crescent-shaped; a crescent-shaped part or mark; a lunula; a lune.
- n. (Chem.) A lune. See Lune.
- n. A small or narrow crescent.
- n. A special area in front of the beak of many bivalve shells. It sometimes has the shape of a double crescent, but is oftener heart-shaped. See
Illust. of Bivalve.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the crescent-shaped area at the base of the human fingernail
Etymologies
- French, from Latin lunula, diminutive of luna ("moon"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Frontal lunule: Diptera; an oval or crescentic space above the base of antennae in Cyclorrhapha, bounded by the frontal suture.”
“Frontal fissure: Diptera; the impressed line extending from the frontal lunule to the border of the mouth.”
“Frontal suture: Diptera; separates the frontal lunule from that part of the head above it: in Coleopteran; = clypeal suture.”
“Shell solid, surface marked by numerous concentric lines of growth, obliquely cordate; posterior margin produced; anterior short; umbones recurved, lunule cordate; pallial line sinuated; margin crenulated.”
“-- (Fig. 222.) Shell smooth, moderately inflated, thick, beaks prominent, lorsal margin depressed; anterior margin rounded, lunule anceolate.”
“[VENUS CRIBRARI] Shell thick, medium size, slightly ventricose, furnished upon the outside by about twenty-five sharp lamelliform concentric and recurved ribs, crenulated upon the umbonal side; ribbed or ridged transversely on the ventral side, the ridges extending across to the adjacent rib; lunule crenulated.”
“[CRASSATELLA GIBBESH] "Shell somewhat triangular, thick, concentrically furrowed; buccal side rounded; anal side somewhat beaked, angular, with a longitudinal ridge; umbones incurved; lunule somewhat excavated.”
“Shell small, thick, compressed, smooth or concentrically furrowed; lunule impressed; ligament external; hinge teeth 2 -- 2; anterior tooth in the right valve large and thick.”
“In rare cases, different DIMSUFs yield diverse meanings: lune ` moon '> lunettes ` pair of spectacles' but also > lunule ` lunula, 'the white area at the base of the fingernail being crescent-shaped.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lunule’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 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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Words for everyday things
tittle, lunule, crepuscular ray, ferrule, gynecomastia, muntin, akimbo, skeuomorph, paresthesia, obdormition, phosphene, armscye and 9 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1402 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 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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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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Oh them words, them words
My fancies, my cudgels.
liquescent, ferly, lamia, basilisk, trigon, fantast, stirp, tristesse, enfleurage, stemma, formicary, lacrimation and 346 more...
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Shape Words
shapely adjectives and descriptors
clithridiate, botryose, fimbriate, filiciform, plumaceous, rhipidate, auriculate, belemnoid, cirriform, scyphate, falcate, cortinate and 127 more...
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Awesome
Awesome words
mimsy, concupiscence, tumescent, ophidian, houri, vorpal, cyprian, Delphic, incipient, effete, existential, loam and 289 more...
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Moon
grapefruit, full, moonshadow, moondance, a display of one'..., waning, new, river, lunar, phase, man in the, apollo and 53 more...
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Miscellany, pt. l
lusorious, lyncean, luminous, light-tight, lupuline, lunule, lurkydish, labretifery, lactivist, logopoeia, loxodromic, liripipionated and 11 more...
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words i'm fond of
indomitable, faience, heliopause, inimitable, serried, inimical, concatenating, mytacism, pyroclastic, assigt, flange, anodyne and 17 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for lunule.
mollusque Also a part of some clam shells. Nov 3, 2009
reesetee the small, pale area at the base of the fingernail Feb 26, 2007