Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In ichthyology, a small lateral bone of the cranium.
  • Of or pertaining to the greater wing of the sphenoid bone.
  • noun One of the bones of the skull, forming by fusion with other cranial bones, in adult life, a great part of the compound sphenoid bone.

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

  • adjective (Anat.) Pertaining to or forming the wing of the sphenoid; relating to a bone in the base of the skull, which in the adult is often consolidated with the sphenoid
  • noun (Anat.) The alisphenoid bone.

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

  • noun anatomy the greater wing of the sphenoid bone
  • adjective anatomy Relating to or forming the wing of the sphenoid bone.
  • adjective anatomy Relating to a bone in the base of the skull, which in the adult is often consolidated with the sphenoid.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin ala wing + English sphenoid.

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Examples

  • She had spoken to him first over a difficulty about the alisphenoid of a rabbit's skull, and he had found that, in biology at least, he had no reason for self-abasement.

    The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories 1906

  • "Incisors 4/2; at birth 6/2; the outer upper incisor soon lost; the next pair very small, placed directly behind the large middle pair; their enamel continuous round the tooth, but much thinner behind; skull with the optic foramina confluent, with no true alisphenoid canal; incisive foramina usually confluent; bony palate reduced to

    Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon Robert Armitage Sterndale 1870

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