Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small crescent-shaped structure or marking, such as a depression near the hinge of a bivalve shell.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One of the perforations formed by the union of digitate processes of the test of certain thin forms of echinoids, as Rotula Augusti.
- noun Something in the shape of a little moon or crescent.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Anat.) Anything crescent-shaped; a crescent-shaped part or mark; a lunula; a lune.
- noun (Chem.) A lune. See
Lune . - noun A small or narrow crescent.
- noun A special area in front of the beak of many bivalve shells. It sometimes has the shape of a double crescent, but is oftener heart-shaped. See
Illust. ofBivalve .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Anything
crescent -shaped; a crescent-shaped part or mark; alunula orlune . - noun A special area in front of the
beak of manybivalve shells , sometimes shaped like a double crescent, but more oftenheart-shaped .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the crescent-shaped area at the base of the human fingernail
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Frontal lunule: Diptera; an oval or crescentic space above the base of antennae in Cyclorrhapha, bounded by the frontal suture.
Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology John. B. Smith
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Frontal fissure: Diptera; the impressed line extending from the frontal lunule to the border of the mouth.
Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology John. B. Smith
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Frontal suture: Diptera; separates the frontal lunule from that part of the head above it: in Coleopteran; = clypeal suture.
Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology John. B. Smith
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Shell solid, surface marked by numerous concentric lines of growth, obliquely cordate; posterior margin produced; anterior short; umbones recurved, lunule cordate; pallial line sinuated; margin crenulated.
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-- (Fig. 222.) Shell smooth, moderately inflated, thick, beaks prominent, lorsal margin depressed; anterior margin rounded, lunule anceolate.
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[VENUS CRIBRARI] Shell thick, medium size, slightly ventricose, furnished upon the outside by about twenty-five sharp lamelliform concentric and recurved ribs, crenulated upon the umbonal side; ribbed or ridged transversely on the ventral side, the ridges extending across to the adjacent rib; lunule crenulated.
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[CRASSATELLA GIBBESH] "Shell somewhat triangular, thick, concentrically furrowed; buccal side rounded; anal side somewhat beaked, angular, with a longitudinal ridge; umbones incurved; lunule somewhat excavated."
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Shell small, thick, compressed, smooth or concentrically furrowed; lunule impressed; ligament external; hinge teeth 2 -- 2; anterior tooth in the right valve large and thick.
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In rare cases, different DIMSUFs yield diverse meanings: lune ` moon '> lunettes ` pair of spectacles' but also > lunule ` lunula, 'the white area at the base of the fingernail being crescent-shaped.
reesetee commented on the word lunule
the small, pale area at the base of the fingernail
February 26, 2007
mollusque commented on the word lunule
Also a part of some clam shells.
November 3, 2009
bilby commented on the word lunule
Surely this should be a pasta shape.
August 26, 2022