Definitions

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

  • noun A small rounded projecting part or outgrowth, such as a wartlike excrescence on the roots of some leguminous plants or a knoblike process in the skin or on a bone.
  • noun Medicine A nodule or swelling, especially a mass of lymphocytes and epithelioid cells forming the characteristic lesion of tuberculosis.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A little tuber, or tubercule; a small tuberosity; especially, a small projection of a bone, for the attachment of a ligament or tendon, as of the femur, hyoid, scaphoid, ulna, tibia, zygoma, etc. See tuberculum and tuberosity.
  • noun A roughness on the humerus for the insertion of the deltoid muscle: usually called deltoid ridge.

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

  • noun A small knoblike prominence or excrescence, whether natural or morbid
  • noun (Med.) A small mass or aggregation of morbid matter; especially, the deposit which accompanies scrofula or phthisis. This is composed of a hard, grayish, or yellowish, translucent or opaque matter, which gradually softens, and excites suppuration in its vicinity. It is most frequently found in the lungs, causing consumption.
  • noun (Med.) a minute vegetable organism (Mycobacterium tuberculosis, formerly Bacillus tuberculosis, and also called Koch's bacillus) discovered by Koch, a German physician, in the sputum of consumptive patients and in tuberculous tissue. It is the causative agent of tuberculosis.

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

  • noun anatomy A round nodule, small eminence, or warty outgrowth, especially those found on bones for the attachment of a muscle or ligament or small elevations on the surface of a tooth.
  • noun botany A small rounded wartlike protuberance of the roots of some leguminous plants; the lip of certain orchids, cacti.
  • noun pathology A small rounded nodule forming the characteristic lesion of tuberculosis.

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

  • noun a protuberance on a bone especially for attachment of a muscle or ligament
  • noun a swelling that is the characteristic lesion of tuberculosis
  • noun small rounded wartlike protuberance on a plant

Etymologies

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

[Latin tūberculum, diminutive of tūber, lump; see tuber.]

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Examples

  • In the female a deep groove forms around the phallus and separates it from the rest of the cloacal tubercle, which is now termed the genital tubercle.

    XI. Splanchnology. 3. The Urogenital Apparatus 1918

  • A prominence, of variable size, occurs at the junction of the upper part of the neck with the greater trochanter, and is called the tubercle of the femur; it is the point of meeting of five muscles: the Glutæus minimus laterally, the Vastus lateralis below, and the tendon of the Obturator internus and two Gemelli above.

    II. Osteology. 6c. 3. The Femur 1918

  • Running obliquely downward and medialward from the tubercle is the intertrochanteric line (spiral line of the femur); it winds around the medial side of the body of the bone, below the lesser trochanter, and ends about 5 cm. below this eminence in the linea aspera.

    II. Osteology. 6c. 3. The Femur 1918

  • The volar surface is concave above, and elevated at its lower and lateral part into a rounded projection, the tubercle, which is directed forward and gives attachment to the transverse carpal ligament and sometimes origin to a few fibers of the Abductor pollicis brevis.

    II. Osteology. 6b. The Hand. 1. The Carpus 1918

  • The adductor tubercle, which is situated on the upper and back part of the medial epicondyle, gives attachment to the round tendon of the adductor magnus, and marks the level of the epiphysial line and of the upper limit of the trochlear surface of the femur.

    Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. Alexander Miles 1893

  • This containing structure, called a tubercle, physically protects the bacteria from being destroyed by the immune system.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories PhysOrg Team 2010

  • This containing structure, called a tubercle, physically protects the bacteria from being destroyed by the immune system.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories PhysOrg Team 2010

  • This containing structure, called a tubercle, physically protects the bacteria from being destroyed by the immune system.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2010

  • TB is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is also called a tubercle bacillus.

    Yahoo! Answers: Latest Questions 2010

  • This containing structure, called a tubercle, physically protects the bacteria from being destroyed by the immune system.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories PhysOrg Team 2010

Comments

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  • "For his nutriment he shewed how he would feed himself exclusively upon a diet of savoury tubercles and fish and coneys there ..."

    Joyce, Ulysses, 14

    January 20, 2007