Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A body opening or passage, such as the opening of the ear or the urethral canal.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In anatomy, a passage: applied to various ducts of the body.

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

  • noun (Anat.) A natural passage or canal. See Illust. of ear.

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

  • noun anatomy A tubular opening or passage in the body.
  • noun Plural form of meatus.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a natural body passageway

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin meātus, passage, from past participle of meāre, to pass; see mei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin meātus ("a course, passing").

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Examples

  • The meatus is the opening of the urethra in the top thing on the end, the glans penis.

    As Husbands Go Susan Isaacs 2010

  • The meatus is the opening of the urethra in the top thing on the end, the glans penis.

    As Husbands Go Susan Isaacs 2010

  • The meatus is the narrowest part of it, and the prostatic part is the widest.

    Surgical Anatomy Joseph Maclise

  • The 'meatus' contains three distinct channels; and the air, loitering, as it were, in it, and being longer in contact with the sensitive membrane by which it is lined, contributes to the acuter sense of smell.

    The Dog William Youatt 1811

  • The flap called the tragus protects of the auditory meatus, or earhole.

    The Anatomy of the Ear James Gurney 2009

  • The flap called the tragus protects of the auditory meatus, or earhole.

    The Anatomy of the Ear James Gurney 2009

  • The flap called the tragus protects of the auditory meatus, or earhole.

    Archive 2009-06-01 James Gurney 2009

  • Nullus est meatus ad quem non pateat aditus impudicitiae.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • When otolaryngologists "irrigate the sinuses" it is done by performing a needle puncture into the sinus, or sometimes when possible by cannulating the middle meatus.

    Medpundit 2005

  • Hypospadias: Hypospadias is a congenital defect of the penis in which the urinary tract opening, or urethral meatus, is abnormally located away from the tip of the penis.

    10/12/2007 2007

Comments

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  • A body opening or passage, such as the opening of the ear or the urethral canal.

    March 1, 2007

  • If you're reading this page, you should read the comments about tragus.

    March 1, 2007

  • I bet you enjoyed that juxtaposition of the ear and the urethral canal, didn't you? eeeeewwwww!

    March 2, 2007

  • You know, Weirdnet #2 is kind of... open-ended... *thinking about the upstairs hallway at home*

    October 28, 2008

  • UUUUUGGGGHHHHHHHH.

    Also, 'words which don't remotely seem to have the right meaning'.

    June 2, 2010

  • Whoever originally madeupicalled this word probably still laughs about it to this day.

    April 3, 2020