Definitions

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

  • noun A hollow muscular organ located in the pelvic cavity of female mammals in which the fertilized egg implants and develops.
  • noun A corresponding part in other animals.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun pl. uteri (-rī).
  • noun The womb; that part of the female sexual passage to which a ripe ovum is conveyed from the ovary, and in which it is detained in gestation until the fetus is matured and expelled in parturition.
  • noun In invertebrates, as Vermes, a special section of the oviduct, or sundry appendages of the oviduct, which subserve a uterine function. Gegenbaur, Comp. Anat. (trans.), p. 182. See cuts under germarium, Rhabdocœla, Cestoidea, and Nematoidea. In Fungi. See peridium.
  • noun Same as hernia of the uterus.

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

  • noun (Anat.) The organ of a female mammal in which the young are developed previous to birth; the womb.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A receptacle, or pouch, connected with the oviducts of many invertebrates in which the eggs are retained until they hatch or until the embryos develop more or less. See Illust. of Hermaphrodite in Append.

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

  • noun anatomy An organ of the female reproductive system in which the young are conceived and develop until birth; the womb.

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

  • noun a hollow muscular organ in the pelvic cavity of females; contains the developing fetus

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Latin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin uterus ("womb, belly").

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Examples

  • And because my uterus is a hot topic around these parts, HBM asked me what I most loved and most hated about this second pregnancy.

    Archive 2008-03-01 kittenpie 2008

  • And because my uterus is a hot topic around these parts, HBM asked me what I most loved and most hated about this second pregnancy.

    Remember, You Asked... kittenpie 2008

  • The blogger who wrote that the uterus is an endocrine organ is correct.

    In Defense of the Hysterectomy aka TBTAM 2007

  • And it is no small matter, starting from temperature as a principle, to collect the cause of the origin of these parts, as if it were a necessary consequence for this part which they call the uterus to be formed in the embryo under the influence of cold but not under that of heat.

    On the Generation of Animals 2002

  • I know anatomical terminology can make people a little squeamish-as one of my guy friends pleaded when I was six months pregnant, "Could you please stop saying the word uterus?"

    Slate Articles Claire Lundberg 2012

  • He is the same legislator who was privately admonished by the Republican House leadership for saying the word "uterus."

    NYT > Home Page By GAIL COLLINS 2011

  • He is the same legislator who was privately admonished by the Republican House leadership for saying the word "uterus."

    The Seattle Times 2011

  • The guys who are left reading don't care if a writer with a uterus is in their magazine or anthology.

    I Vant to Suck Your BLUD! And your writing SUX! wendigomountain 2009

  • The uterus is a hollow, pear-shaped organ located in a woman's lower abdomen, between the bladder and the rectum, that sheds its lining each month during menstruation and in which a fertilized egg (ovum) becomes implanted and the fetus develops.

    Glossary 2010

  • The uterus is then closed, placed back inside the maternal abdomen, and the abdominal incision repaired.

    Sacrococcygeal Teratoma (SCT), Sacrococcygeal Tumor Treatment 2010

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