Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small bone, especially one of the three bones of the middle ear.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small bone or bonelet. Specifically — One of the little bones of the ear, as the malleus, incus, and stapes or columella, more fully called
ossicles of audition or auditory ossicles, and alsoossicula auditus and phonophori. See cuts underear and tympanic. - n. A small hard nodule of chitin or some substance resembling bone. Specifically — One of the skeletal elements of an echinoderin which, joined to one another and united by connective or muscular tissue, constitute the chief part of the framework of the body. They are grouped and named in several sets according to the formations into which they enter, as the ambulacral or adambulaeral ossicles, along the ambulacra, the ossicles which support the spines when these exist, etc.
- n. Also ossicule, ossiculum.
Wiktionary
- n. anatomy A small bone (or bony structure), especially one of the three of the middle ear.
- n. zoology Bone-like joint or plate, especially:
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A little bone.
- n. (Zoöl.) One of numerous small calcareous structures forming the skeleton of certain echinoderms, as the starfishes.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a small bone; especially one in the middle ear
Etymologies
- Late 16th century from Latin ossiculum ("little bone, ossicle") from os ("bone"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin ossiculum, diminutive of os, bone; see ost- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“There's little point discussing the minutiae of ossicle evolution if you reject that reptiles and mammals share a common ancestor.”
“If the eardrum is no longer physically connected to the inner ear, i.e. loss of a single ossicle, the impedance matching effectively reduces to zero (in fact "poor impedance matching" is just an oxymoron), but hearing does not require all parts of the system.”
“Every reptile, living or fossil, however, has at least four bones in the lower jaw and only one auditory ossicle, the stapes… There are no transitional fossil forms showing, for instance, three or two jawbones, or two ear bones.”
“Though some would debate your right to ears if you keep your iPod volume maxed at an ossicle-wobbling level, an owner of Apple's popular Lilliputian jukebox has filed a lawsuit against the computer maker, claiming the device can cause hearing loss in people who use it.”
“Among von Békésy's important contributions to our knowledge of sound transmission in the middle ear should be mentioned the elucidation of the vibration patterns of the eardrum and of the interplay of the ossicle movements.”
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1961 - Presentation Speech
“The footplate of the stirrup which serves as the innermost link of the ossicle chain is movably mounted in the opening of the oval window of the inner ear which faces the middle ear.”
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1961 - Presentation Speech
“Within the airfilled middle ear the vibrations are transmitted via a subtle system of levers, the ossicle chain, to the fluid of the inner ear, the cochlea.”
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1961 - Presentation Speech
“If the tiny muscles attached to them are damaged, or if the nerves leading to those muscles are, the ossicle movements become somewhat erratic.”
“The second ossicle which receives the hammer blows is the incus ( "anvil" L).”
“Because in doing so it strikes again and again on the second bone, this first ossicle is called the matteus (mal'ee-us; "hammer" L).”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ossicle’.
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phrontistery - o
from phrontistery.info
ozostomia, ozoniferous, oxytone, oxytocic, oxyphonia, oxymoron, oxygeusia, oxyblepsia, oxyacanthous, oxter, oxyacaesthesia, owling and 504 more...
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Sicle
I sicle, you sicle, we're all sick for something-sicle
Popsicle, Creamsicle, Dreamsicle, Fudgesicle, cake-sicle, Epsicle, poopsicle, motorsickle, findesicle, hammerandsicle, bisicle, ossicle and 19 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, O
opacity, opaline, olfactory, orthoepy, orthoepy, oleaginous, obloquy, oasitic, obtrude, orthotic, overweening, ostinato and 125 more...
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Human Anatomy
Terms relating to the human body, primarily in osteology.
humerus, scapula, ulna, radius, maxilla, mandible, mandible, occipital bone, parietal bone, frontal bone, tibia, talus and 104 more...
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wordhoard
dilatory, ataraxia, hermit, cabana, hut, dome, vestigial, porcine, crapulous, usufruct, curmudgeon, bombastic and 229 more...
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EN - funny (single) words
"Fornication" is not equal to "formication".
Words with funny meaning, spelling or both.barratry, bastinado, bezonian, bibcock, bibliobibuli, biffy, bodewash, boeotian, boondoggle, borborygmic, bosky, brobdingnagian and 729 more...
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logicalbiscotti's omniglottery
i heart words.
lolligag, defenestrate, dammsuga, kakumei, in cahoots, spleen, hubris, epoch, anaphylaxis, lummox, tincture, schadenfreude and 156 more...
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quark, quark, quark!
science words that are fun to say
math, too
"I like to say 'quark'! Quark, quark, quark, quark!" - Hobbesscatological, circadian rhythm, imago, quark, gastrointestinal, phylum, protease inhibitor, trilobite, solar plexus, ratite, strata, quasar and 86 more...
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