Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Cylindrical but usually slightly tapering at both ends, circular in cross section, and smooth-surfaced.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Slender and smooth, with a circular transverse section; cylindrical or slightly tapering. See cut under petiole.
Wiktionary
- adj. Having a smooth circular cross-section; cylindrical.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Cylindrical and slightly tapering; columnar, as some stems of plants.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. especially of plant parts; cylindrical and tapering
Etymologies
- From Latin teres ("rounded (cylindrical)"). (Wiktionary)
- From Latin teres, teret-, rounded; see terə-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A 1651 edition of Hernández included a carefully drawn figure and a Latin description that in its wording seemed positively modern: Ololiuqui, which some call coaxihuitl, or snake plant, is a twining herb with thin, green cordate leaves, slender green terete stems, and long white flowers.”
“Joints 1½ in. to 3 in. long, and a little less in width, terete, with very prominent tubercles and numerous tawny bristles; upper spines 1 in. to 1½ in. long, white, with a yellow point, shorter ones hair-like and curled.”
“-- A well-marked species in the size of its mammae, or tubercles, which are at least 1 in. long by 1/3 in. in diameter, terete, slightly curved, and narrowed to a pointed apex, the texture being very soft and watery.”
“Branches numerous, composed of long, terete joints, rather thicker than a goose-quill, glaucous-green, slightly roughened on the surface, with depressions for the dot-like cushions.”
“Cushions very close together, composed of short, white and yellowish bristles, and stout, terete spines, 1 in. or more long, set on little tubercles.”
“Its curiously and irregularly pinnate fronds are borne on slender stalks, terete toward the base, and covered with reddish brown, downy scales, instead of being produced loosely, as in most other Nephrolepises; these are densily crowded, and the outcome of closely clustered crowns.”
“The _inflorescence_ is a pyramidal panicle 1-1/2 to 4 inches long, erect on a terete glabrous peduncle 1-1/2 to 6 inches long, the main rachis is slender, erect, striate, glabrous and has glandular streaks just above the insertion of the branches of the lowest verticil.”
“The spikelets are one-to two-flowered, subsessile and subsecund on the branches which are produced as awn-like bristles beyond the ultimate spikelet, obscurely jointed and persistent on their obconic short pedicels, narrowly lanceolate and terete.”
“Rachis of spikes narrow, filiform, terete or angular.”
“Grain is small, fusiform, terete and enclosed in the nut-like polished and hardened first glume.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘terete’.
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phrontistery-t
from phrontistery.info
tabacosis, tabanid, tabaret, tabati?re, tabby, tabefaction, tabellary, tabellion, tabernacle, tabernacular, tabescent, tabific and 930 more...
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Not 250 Spelling Words Again
Yet more spelling words for intermediate to advanced spellers.
kyoodle, heimin, feis, menarche, cordwainer, gherao, zythum, accidie, anastomosis, boustrophedon, oleum, penicillin and 238 more...
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6-letter words with precisely 1,2, & ...
allele, anatta, arrear, bedded, bettee, cocoon, doodad, gaggee, googol, hubbub, hammam, hummum and 30 more...
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misc. plant morphology
the concise british flora in colour (w. keble martin) - glossary - edited, and to be added to
whorled, viviparous, vittae, viscid, villous, valvate, unarmed, umbellate, umbel, tubercle, triquetrous, trigonous and 135 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Monovocalics
Words that have only one of the vowels. On this list I include only words with at least three vowels. When I first started the list, if a word had several forms, I generally listed only the one wit...
syzygy, mirific, cumulus, homolog, monocot, bedewed, jezebel, referee, bikini, minikin, locomotor, terebenthene and 2359 more...
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Shape Words
shapely adjectives and descriptors
clithridiate, botryose, fimbriate, filiciform, plumaceous, rhipidate, auriculate, belemnoid, cirriform, scyphate, falcate, cortinate and 127 more...
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Turning and Twisting Tours
words in the nature of double spirals
swift, swerve, swirl, swivel, swarm, swag, swank, swoop, swinge, swarf, spire, esparto and 361 more...
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The word collector
My collection of words that are intriguing, but don't fit my other lists.
snailery, aplasia, postulant, aigrette, caravel, frigate, capeskin, suffusion, schist, varlet, sepulchral, anisotropy and 320 more...
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Reesetee reset
Words formed from the letters in "reesetee". (See comments about "teetee" on Still more bird wirds; also see comments at retree.)
settee, retree, stresses, erse, resee, serest, tsetse, tresses, tester, street, reset, rest and 32 more...
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Rounded
Words meaning rounded.
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Smooth (adjective)
Words meaning smooth (adjective).
glabrous, levigate, laevigate, glabrate, glabrescent, terete, teretous
Tweets
Looking for tweets for terete.
biocon Terete also means rounded, smooth and round (Oxford English Dictionary). Aug 13, 2011