Definitions

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

  • noun A small nipplelike projection, such as a protuberance on the skin, at the root of a hair or feather, or at the base of a developing tooth.
  • noun One of the small, round or cone-shaped protuberances on the top of the tongue that contain taste buds.
  • noun A pimple or pustule.
  • noun Botany A minute projection on the surface of a stigma, petal, or leaf.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A pap, teat, or nipple of a mammary gland; a mammilla.
  • noun Hence Something like a papilla; a papilliform part or process.

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

  • noun Any minute nipplelike projection.

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

  • noun anatomy A nipple-like anatomical structure.

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

  • noun (botany) a tiny outgrowth on the surface of a petal or leaf
  • noun a small projection of tissue at the base of a hair or tooth or feather
  • noun a small nipple-shaped protuberance concerned with taste, touch, or smell

Etymologies

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

[Latin, nipple, diminutive of papula, swelling, pimple.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin papilla ("nipple").

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Examples

  • Each papilla consists of a projection of mucous membrane from 1 to 2 mm. wide, attached to the bottom of a circular depression of the mucous membrane; the margin of the depression is elevated to form a wall (vallum), and between this and the papilla is a circular sulcus termed the fossa.

    XI. Splanchnology. 2a. The Mouth 1918

  • It is more common to meet with a condition in which the patient complains of severe burning or aching pain in the region of the foliate papilla, which is situated on the edge of the tongue just in front of the anterior pillar of the fauces.

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

  • Three Random Words: la panosse (f) = floorcloth = passer la panosse = to mop the floor le monticule (m) = hillock, mound; heap la papille (f) = papilla = les papilles gustatives = taste buds

    French Word-A-Day: 2009

  • Three Random Words: la panosse (f) = floorcloth = passer la panosse = to mop the floor le monticule (m) = hillock, mound; heap la papille (f) = papilla = les papilles gustatives = taste buds

    dorloter - French Word-A-Day 2009

  • Three Random Words: la panosse (f) = floorcloth = passer la panosse = to mop the floor le monticule (m) = hillock, mound; heap la papille (f) = papilla = les papilles gustatives = taste buds

    French Word-A-Day: 2009

  • The papilla, the white part of the kidney where urine is concentrated, is a target for these drugs; once the concentrating mechanism is damaged, protein and tissue are excreted in the urine.

    After the Diagnosis MD Julian Seifter 2010

  • It can be easily identified by its small size and absence of a papilla on the tongue.

    Archive 2007-02-01 2007

  • Nourishment for the growing hair is derived from a dermal projection into the hair bulb called the papilla.

    Scientists Report Breakthrough in Cure for Baldness | Impact Lab 2006

  • I have even seen parents who think the nasopalatine papilla the soft pink bump between the two front teeth is an extra tooth.

    Stem Cells From Baby Teeth Dr. Dean Brandon 2007

  • Taste buds are on the sides of these papillae and can taste chemicals that travel in saliva through the between-papilla grooves.

    Archive 2007-06-01 Sarah Werning 2007

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