Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various funnel-shaped bodily passages, openings, structures, or parts, especially.
  • noun The stalk of the pituitary gland.
  • noun The calyx of a kidney.
  • noun The ovarian opening of a fallopian tube.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In anatomy, a funnel-shaped organ or part.
  • noun In zöol.:
  • noun The funnel or siphon of a cephalopod, formed by the coalescence or apposition of the epipodia: supposed by Huxley to be formed by the union and folding into a tubular form of processes which correspond to the epipodia of pteropods and branchiogastropods. See cut under Dibranchiata.
  • noun One of the gastric cavities of the Ctenophora, into which the gastric sac leads; a chamber connecting the gastric cavity with the entire system of canals of the body, and also leading to the aboral pores. It corresponds to the common axial cavity of actinozoans. See cut under Ctenophora.
  • noun The dilated upper extremity of the oviduct of a bird, which receives the ovum from the ovarium, corresponding to the fimbriated extremity of the Fallopian tube of a mammal.
  • noun [capitalized] A genus of mollusks.
  • noun The two or three main divisions of the pelvis of the kidney. formed by the confluence of the calyces.

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

  • noun (Anat.) A funnel-shaped or dilated organ or part
  • noun A central cavity in the Ctenophora, into which the gastric sac leads.
  • noun The siphon of Cephalopoda. See Cephalopoda.

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

  • noun anatomy A funnel-shaped cavity or organ.

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

  • noun any of various funnel-shaped parts of the body (but especially the hypophyseal stalk)

Etymologies

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

[Latin, funnel, from īnfundere, to pour in; see infuse.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin infundibulum ("funnel"), from īnfundō ("pour in or upon").

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Examples

  • Through the hiatus semilunaris the meatus communicates with a curved passage termed the infundibulum, which communicates in front with the anterior ethmoidal cells and in rather more than fifty per cent. of skulls is continued upward as the frontonasal duct into the frontal air-sinus; when this continuity fails, the frontonasal duct opens directly into the anterior part of the meatus.

    II. Osteology. 5d. The Interior of the Skull 1918

  • The middle ethmoidal cells open into the central part of this meatus, and a sinuous passage, termed the infundibulum, extends upward and forward through the labyrinth and communicates with the anterior ethmoidal cells, and in about 50 per cent. of skulls is continued upward as the frontonasal duct into the frontal sinus.

    II. Osteology. 5a. 6. Ethmoid bone 1918

  • We decided it was time to finally meet, and the daffodil party seemed the perfect time, so we crossed our fingers and hoped a chrono-synclastic infundibulum would not result.

    Dueling (and Partying) Scott Edelmans scottedelman 2010

  • In "The Sirens of Titan" (1959), there is a mathematical point where everybody is right all the time -- "the chrono-synclastic infundibulum."

    Dark Jester, Cranky Scold 2009

  • I would fear that Paul Nelson has fallen into a chronosynclastic infundibulum and come unstuck in time, except that he still pops up saying the same stuff at creationist conferences.

    The Panda's Thumb: April 2007 Archives 2007

  • I would fear that Paul Nelson has fallen into a chronosynclastic infundibulum and come unstuck in time, except that he still pops up saying the same stuff at creationist conferences.

    Three years and counting - The Panda's Thumb 2007

  • A chronosynclastic infundibulum, from memory, is where everything that could be true, is true simultaneously.

    Three years and counting - The Panda's Thumb 2007

  • "Future Guy" could have sent them hurtling back through the space-time continuum (or as Stony Stephenson knew it in 'Between Time And Timbuktu', the chrono-synclastic infundibulum) in order to insure that the Suliban (as the most logical alien race to be involved) did not cause the baby's death.

    A PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT Toby O'B 2005

  • The Chrono-synclastic infundibulum, for example, if l've got that right.

    Don't Panic Gaiman, Neil 1993

  • The middle one is small and sticks up behind the infundibulum; it is absent in fish and Amphibia, and soon disappears during the development of the higher forms.

    Form and Function A Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology

Comments

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  • Vortices are funnel-shaped. See Free Associations.

    February 5, 2008

  • Haha! Leave it to you, mollusque. :-)

    February 5, 2008

  • Sirens of Titans is a classic! What-a =ho∑l

    September 2, 2012