Definitions

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

  • noun Something, such as a bulge, knob, or swelling, that protrudes.
  • noun The condition of being protuberant.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A swelling or tumor on the body; a prominence; a bunch or knob; anything swelled or pushed beyond the surrounding or adjacent surface; on the surface of the earth, a bill, knoll, or other elevation; specifically, in anatomy and zoology, a protuberant part; a projection or prominence; a tuberosity: as, a bony protuberance. See cut under conjugation.
  • noun See the adjectives.

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

  • noun That which is protuberant swelled or pushed beyond the surrounding or adjacent surface; a swelling or tumor on the body; a prominence; a bunch or knob; an elevation.
  • noun (Astron.) certain rose-colored masses on the limb of the sun which are seen to extend beyond the edge of the moon at the time of a solar eclipse. They may be discovered with the spectroscope on any clear day. Called also solar prominences. See Illust. in Append.

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

  • noun A bulge, knob, swelling, spine or anything that protrudes.

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

  • noun something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from its surroundings
  • noun the condition of being protuberant; the condition of bulging out

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin prōtubērantia ("bulge; protuberance"), from prō + tūber ("swelling; protuberance") + -antia ("-ance").

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