Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Circular or spherical.
- adj. Botany Circular and flat. Used especially of leaves.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having the shape of an orb or orbit; spherical; circular; discoidal; round.
- Rounded; complete; perfect.
- In entomology, having a regularly rounded surface and bordered by a circular margin: as, the orbicular pronotum of a beetle.
- In botany, having the shape of a flat body with a nearly circular outline: as, an orbicular leaf. Also orbiculate.
- n. In entomology, a circular mark or spot nearly always found on the anterior wings of the noctuid moths. It is situated a little inside the center, between the posterior line and the median shade. Also called
orbicular spot and discal spot. - In petrography, in phanerocrystal-line igneous rocks, having large spheroidal aggregations of minerals, in radial or concentric groups of megascopic crystals: as, orbicular granite, orbicular diorite.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Resembling or having the form of orb; spherical; circular; orbiculate.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having the shape of a sphere or ball
- adj. circular or nearly circular
Etymologies
- From the Late Latin orbiculāris, from Latin orbiculus, diminutive of orbis ("orb"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English orbiculer, from Old French orbiculaire, from Late Latin orbiculāris, from Latin orbiculus, diminutive of orbis, circle, disk. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A couple of basketballs (multiple orbicular adjacencies) sitting (self-referentially abiding) in an empty aquarium (post-emptively vacated) looks pretty much the same no matter how described: obfuscatory, vacuous, goofy, uninspiring.”
The Wall Street Journal: It Is Perfectly Clear: Multiple Orbicular Adjacencies Abide
“But, in this case, he included an interesting observation: “…the operculum is orbicular, and so small as to admit of the animal retiring one half the length of the shell.””
“There is another tree with orbicular leaves in pairs, which grows to an immense size.”
“F.R.S. Lamarck separated the mother-of-pearls shell (MARGARITA) from the swallow-tail muscles (AVICULA) on account of its more orbicular shape.”
“The world is spherical; the orbicular hath the pre-eminence above all other figures, for being round itself it hath its parts like itself.”
“Empedocles, before the four elements, introduceth the most minute bodies which resemble elements; but they did exist before the elements, having similar parts and orbicular.”
“Assuredly, fire is borne aloft, is without a soul, is easily quenchable and corruptible; but the sun is orbicular and animate, eternal and imperishable.”
“The Suffet had collected his men into an orbicular mass, in such”
“The leaves are extremely varied, from deeply cordate to almost orbicular, 4-20 cm long, opposite or alternate.”
“The leaves are cordate-orbicular to ovate-orbicular, strongly acuminate, 15-30 cm long and broad; the petioles are thickened at the base with ear like projections that often encircle the stem.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘orbicular’.
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Leaves
phyllodial, phyllodium, phyllodineous, leaf, lamina, petiole, stoma, cuticle, stomata, apex, vein, craspedodromous and 122 more...
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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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The Whole Ball of Wax
Feel free to wax poetic.
the whole ball of..., wax poetic, wax, beeswax, ambergris, cedar waxwing, sealing wax, earwax, paraffin, bougie, epicuticular wax, waxing gibbous moon and 192 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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Autumnal to me
treescape, autumn, abacus, gable, gelid, frondescence, orbicular, adversaria, arborescent, obfuscate, vulneration, anastomosis and 2 more...
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Circular
Adjectives meaning circular
circinate, orbicular, rotund, cyclic, arrondi, globose, orbiculate, annular, spherical, spheroid, globular, cricoid
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Papageno's Words, Pt. I
hobbledehoy, absquatulate, chthonic, prolix, ululate, internecine, verisimilitude, animadversion, concupiscence, vertiginous, cucullate, lucubrate and 1554 more...
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F A V E S
sulphury, tearful sludge, flipitor, orbicular, regality, oblivionizing, critical path, outernet, flotant, friendorphobia, fissure inside, neat loaf and 118 more...
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Useful Words
I can use these.
aptronym, haplology, ectopia, folderol, volute, caryatid, spandrel, pendulous, miasmic, gelid, dotty, anomie and 256 more...
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roundabout
words that imply circular direction or shape
circumlocutious, rotunda, circumfrence, spiral, gyration, orbicular, merry-go-round, encyclical, circumbendibus
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Found reading
telga, tarantass, jalousie, argillaceous, sardanapalus, losel, circumambient, orbicular, mufti, statim, spizzerinctum, soupçon and 46 more...
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Shapes
discoidal, orbicular, spherical, hemispheric, rectilinearity, concentricity, equiangular, stellate, concavities, convexity, spiralling, cruciform and 25 more...
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mifunemom's Words
recondite, lugubrious, anapest, dactyl, doggerel, apotheosis, recalcitrant, remiss, hippodrome, languid, orbicular
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Key it out
Recalling words from Botany 3something--Taxonomy
abaxial, umbel, erose, campanulate, dehiscence, achene, inflorescence, pinnate, palmate, perianth, orbicular, baccate and 33 more...
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Bartleby the Scrivener
Words to remember from Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener"
imprimis, orbicular, remunerative, abrogation, advent, florid, dun, execrable, obstreperous, pernicious, vintner, potation and 28 more...
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leaf morphology
the concise british flora in colour (w. keble martin)
undulate, truncate, trifoliate, subulate, spathulate, serrate, sagittate, rhomboidal, retuse, reniform, pinnate, perfoliate and 30 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for orbicular.
milosrdenstvi I do not speak it in vanity, but simply record the fact, that I was not unemployed in my profession by the late John Jacob Astor; a name which, I admit, I love to repeat, for it hath a rounded and orbicular sound to it, and rings like unto bullion.
-- Bartleby the Scrivener Nov 20, 2009