Definitions

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

  • noun The outer projecting portion of the ear.
  • noun Biology An earlobe-shaped part, process, or appendage, especially at the base of an organ.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The pinna of the external ear; that part of the organ of hearing which projects from the side of the head. See pinna, and cut under ear. Also auricula.
  • noun A chamber or one of the chambers of the heart into which the blood comes from the veins, and from which it passes into the ventricle or one of the ventricles.
  • noun Something, or some part of a thing, like or likened to an ear: variously applied, chiefly in botany, zoölogy, and comparative anatomy.
  • noun An instrument applied to the ears to assist in hearing; a kind of ear-trumpet.

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

  • noun The external ear, or that part of the ear which is prominent from the head.
  • noun The chamber, or one of the two chambers, of the heart, by which the blood is received and transmitted to the ventricle or ventricles; -- so called from its resemblance to the auricle or external ear of some quadrupeds. See heart.
  • noun (Zoöl.) An angular or ear-shaped lobe.
  • noun An instrument applied to the ears to give aid in hearing; a kind of ear trumpet.

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

  • noun anatomy The outer ear or pinna.
  • noun anatomy An ear-shaped appendage of the left or right atrium of the heart.
  • noun anatomy An atrium, the smaller of the two types of heart chamber.
  • noun botany Any appendage in the shape of an earlobe

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

  • noun a small conical pouch projecting from the upper anterior part of each atrium of the heart
  • noun the externally visible cartilaginous structure of the external ear

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, auricle of the heart, from Old French, little ear, from Latin auricula, ear, earlier diminutive of auris, ear; see ous- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin auricula, diminutive of auris ("ear")

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Examples

  • Right at the start of my experiments upon animals it had occurred to me, as to other investigators, that one could penetrate diagonally through the right auricle from the upper into the lower vena cava.

    Werner Forssmann - Nobel Lecture 1964

  • The external part of the ear is called the auricle, or outward ear, which is a cartilaginous funnel, connected to the bones of the temple, by means of cellular substance, and likewise by its own proper ligaments and muscles.

    Popular Lectures on Zoonomia Or The Laws of Animal Life, in Health and Disease Thomas Garnett 1784

  • With a skillful pressing movement of her auricle, which is used as a hammer, she pushes the gathered gold into her baskets.

    Wil's Ebay E-Store amp;34;Nutrition 2010

  • 25 THE HUMAN BRAIN The auricle is another uniquely mammalian feature.

    The Human Brain Asimov, Isaac 1963

  • Abbreviations: P, the outside opening of the pneumostome (breathing hole); MC, mantle collar (the front edge of the mantle that is fused to the top of the head in a live snail); K, kidney, V, ventricle; A, auricle (the ventricle and the auricle together make up the heart); R, rectum (its opening is within the pneumostome); L, lung.

    Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009

  • The peripheral system includes the external ear (auricle and ear canal), the tympanic membrane, or eardrum, the middle ear (three small and connected bones: malleus, incus, and stapes), the oval window boundary, and the inner ear (vestibular system and cochlea).

    You Raising Your Child Michael F. Roizen 2010

  • The peripheral system includes the external ear (auricle and ear canal), the tympanic membrane, or eardrum, the middle ear (three small and connected bones: malleus, incus, and stapes), the oval window boundary, and the inner ear (vestibular system and cochlea).

    You Raising Your Child Michael F. Roizen 2010

  • The peripheral system includes the external ear (auricle and ear canal), the tympanic membrane, or eardrum, the middle ear (three small and connected bones: malleus, incus, and stapes), the oval window boundary, and the inner ear (vestibular system and cochlea).

    You Raising Your Child Michael F. Roizen 2010

  • The peripheral system includes the external ear (auricle and ear canal), the tympanic membrane, or eardrum, the middle ear (three small and connected bones: malleus, incus, and stapes), the oval window boundary, and the inner ear (vestibular system and cochlea).

    You Raising Your Child Michael F. Roizen 2010

  • The eight tribal leaders were scheduled to meet each other on Monday in Wana to discuss plans to achieve peace between between security forces and insurgents. and it reminded me of an auricle that I have neglected to post.

    Archive 2008-01-01 Not a sheep 2008

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