Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Biology A thin, pliable layer of tissue covering surfaces or separating or connecting regions, structures, or organs of an animal or a plant.
- n. Biology Cell membrane.
- n. A piece of parchment.
- n. Chemistry A thin sheet of natural or synthetic material that is permeable to substances in solution.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A thin pliable expansive structure of the body; an expansion of any soft tissue or part in the form of sheet or layer, investing or lining some other structure or connecting two or more structures. The term is used in the widest sense, with little or no reference to the kind of tissue which may be concerned, the membranous quality depending upon thinness and pliability, not upon texture or fabric. No hard parts, as bone and cartilage, come within the definition of membrane. Most membranes are fibrous—that is, consist wholly or in part of some form of connective tissue, in or on which may be other and more special form-elements, as the layers of cells peculiar to the mucous, the serous, and other special membranes. In some cases a sheet of nerve-tissue, or of muscle-tissue, constitutes a membrane, with little admixture of other elements. Some membranes chiefly consist of a network of blood-vessels, with little connective tissue. Most membranes are specified by qualifying terms. See phrases following.
- n. In entomology, specifically, the membranous terminal part of a hemielytrum; the membrane of the fore wing of a hemipter. See cut under clavus.
- n. A skin prepared for being written on.
Wiktionary
- n. A flexible enclosing or separating tissue forming a plane or film and separating two environments (usually in a plant or animal).
- n. A mechanical, thin, flat flexible part that can deform or vibrate when excited by an external force.
- n. A flexible or semi-flexible covering or waterproofing whose primary function is to exclude water.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Anat.) A thin layer or fold of tissue, usually supported by a fibrous network, serving to cover or line some part or organ, and often secreting or absorbing certain fluids.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a thin pliable sheet of material
- n. a pliable sheet of tissue that covers or lines or connects the organs or cells of animals or plants
Etymologies
- From Latin membrana ("skin of body"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin membrāna, skin, from membrum, member of the body. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He searching the darkness with his eyes, reaching tentatively towards a mirror that no longer showed a reflection he recognized, and she pressed against the membrane from the other side, frozen in place.”
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“I loathe the feel of it as I peel the membrane from the inside.”
“Oyster beds are dead and dying with the offspring unable to survive due to changes in membrane viscosity caused by the dispersant.”
“Recently, needle septostomy through the inter-twin membrane, has been reported as a treatment for Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome.”
“The inter-twin membrane has two layers (amnion-amnion) in monochorionic gestations, which appear thin, versus three layers (amnion-chorion-amnion) in dichorionic gestations.”
“Wave Garden's piezo-electro membrane is a flexible electric generator, where bending the material or applying stress creates an electric charge.”
“While looking for a problem to study by X-ray diffraction, I got to know Mark Bretscher, the only person at the LMB interested in membrane structure, and he suggested reading a paper just published by Francis Crick titled A General Model for”
“The fossil is similar to modern-day flying squirrels, with a skin membrane stretched out between fore - and hind-limbs, presumably enabling it to glide from tree to tree.”
“With every mitosis, the nuclear membrane is regenerated.”
“Although the nuclear membrane is recycled, the lipids that are involved are biomembranes, generated by lipid-forming enzymes.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘membrane’.
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bad memory
copper, anvil, oblique, thrust, shrine, welfare, farewell, bitter, faction, sectarian, tangible, spectacle and 134 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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Thresholds
we are all just passing through.
(boundaries, portals and liminal spaces/times)cockcrow, interface, thin line, portal, postern, littoral, portico, porch, stoop, strand, liminal, limen and 304 more...
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gross
corpuscle, globule, botched, botulism, pustulent, swampy, splenic, distended, turgid, maw, retch, spew and 13 more...
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ENVI - drinking water
unconfined aquifer, confined aquifer, artesian aquifer, water catchment, groundwater abstr..., spring water coll..., surface water col..., impounding reservoir, intake water, potable water, treatment plant, drinking water tr... and 79 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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I do not like them, Sam I Am
Words that, for various reasons, I wish we could do without.
copacetic, gamut, horehound, lewd, membrane, metrics, mucous, mucus, negligee, nostril, odious, odor and 143 more...
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good ones
grumble, fumble, bumble, stumble, crumble, mumble, jumble, humble, bramble, scramble, amble, ramble and 191 more...
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curligirli0's Words
crapulous, swish, shiatsu, zen, xenoglossy, nincompoop, loquacious, pianissimo, onomatopoeia, imperturbable, silky, hosanas and 379 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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phuzzy's Words
entomophagan, corpuscle, mellifluence, haberdasher, milliner, tow, spartan, bdellotomy, trepan, trephine, congenial, courtly and 208 more...
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ideas out loud
bandwagon, middle, via, web, fly, thru, safety, thor, swoosh, top, network effect, matrix and 200 more...
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Biolorgy
Fun words about biology
velociraptor, natural selection, hypothalamus, meiosis, lungfish, evolution, nephron, homo erectus, gene, ecology, marsupial, gamete and 8 more...
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words i hate
salve, puncture, ointment, suckling, milky, sinew, lymph, moist, membrane, fungus, secretion, crotch
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ugly
anal, anus, pimple, zit, hack, spit, crayon, umbilical, membrane, fissure, toady, penis and 20 more...
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Riboflavin's Words
aquavit, chicken, neuromancer, tits, cephalopod, riboflavin, fuck, mind banana, tasteflex, balrog, cropsy, pod and 45 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for membrane.

jennarenn Mine is currently insane. Sep 19, 2007