Definitions

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

  • noun A structure in most mollusks over which the radula is drawn back and forth during feeding.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The whole radular apparatus, buccal mass, lingual ribbon, or “tongue” of certain mollusks.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) A special structure found in the mouth of most mollusks, except bivalves. It consists of several muscles and a cartilage which supports a chitinous radula, or lingual ribbon, armed with teeth. Also applied to the radula alone. See radula.

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

  • noun a projection in the mouths of most molluscs; it is used, with the radula to break up food

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

odonto- + -phore

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Examples

  • And while he speaks of the teeth and that which serves these animals for a tongue, it is plain from the context that he means in the one case the two halves of the parrot-like beak, and in the other the anterior end of the odontophore.

    Fathers of Biology Charles McRae

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