Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A scale or scalelike structure.
- n. A thin platelike mass, as of bone.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In botany, a scale of any sort, usually the homologuo of a leaf.
- n. In anatomy and zoology: A scale, as of the epidermis.
- n. A thin, expansive, scalelike part of a bone: as, the squama of the temporal bone (the squamosal); the squama of the occipital bone (the supra-occipital).
- n. In ornithology, a scale-like feather, as one of those upon a penguin's wing or the throat of a humming-bird. See cut under Squamipennes.
- n. In entomology, an elytrum.
- n. The scale-like exopodite of a crustacean antenna.
Wiktionary
- n. medicine A scale cast off from the skin; a thin dry shred of epithelium.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Med.) A scale cast off from the skin; a thin dry shred consisting of epithelium.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a protective structure resembling a scale
Etymologies
- Latin a scale. (Wiktionary)
- Latin squāma. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Projecting from the lower part of the squama is a long, arched process, the zygomatic process.”
“Of squama aeris, as much as three specilla can contain, with the gluten of summer wheat: levigate, pound, form into pills, and give; it purges water downwards.”
“Pangolin squama composite nanostructures, non-smooth surfaces”
“The mountainous wilderness which I had lately traversed appeared regularly undulated as the great ocean after a tempest; the undulations gradually depressing, yet perfectly regular, as the squama of fish, or imbrications of tile on a roof: the nearest ground to me of a perfect full green; next more glaucous; and lastly almost blue as the ether with which the most distant curve of the horizon seemed to be blended.”
“Calypter: Diptera; the alula or squama when it covers the haltere.”
“Anterior squama: = antisquama; q.v. Anterior stigmatal tubercle: on thoracic and abdominal segment of caterpillars; varies from substigmatal to stigmatal anterior; sometimes united to IV: it is V of the abdominal series, IV of the thorax (Dyar).”
“Aileron: the scale covering the base of primaries in some insects; see tegulae in Diptera = alula and squama, q.v. Air-sacs or vesicles: pouch-like expansions of tracheal tubes in heavy insects, capable of inflation and supposed to lessen specific gravity.”
“Alulae: Diptera; a pair of membranous scales above the halteres, behind the root of the wing, one above or before the other; the anterior attached to the wing and moving with it, the posterior fastened to the thorax and stationary; see calyptra; squama; squamula; lobulus; axillary lobe; aileron; scale; tegulae: Coleoptera;”
“Antisquama: Diptera; the upper of the two which moves with the wings; = antitegula; see also squama.”
“The squama forms the anterior and upper part of the bone, and is scale-like, thin, and translucent.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘squama’.
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Physical anthropology
acclimatization, adriatic, aegyptid, aeta, aethiopid, africoid, ainuid, aistin, alae, alare, albino, allele and 202 more...
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Squ-
All those fun words that begin with squ-. Be careful; this list is hard to read without some serious eye-crossage.
squid, squab, square, squeegee, squirt, squire, squib, squelch, squabble, squad, squally, squalled and 228 more...
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