Definitions

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

  • noun The first division of the stomach of a ruminant animal, in which most food collects immediately after being swallowed and from which it is later returned to the mouth as cud for thorough chewing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The cud of a ruminant.
  • noun The paunch or first stomach of a ruminant; the largest of the four compartments of the ruminant stomach.

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

  • noun (Anat.) The first stomach of ruminants; the paunch; the fardingbag. See Illust. below.
  • noun The cud of a ruminant.

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

  • noun The first stomach of ruminants

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

  • noun the first compartment of the stomach of a ruminant; here food is collected and returned to the mouth as cud for chewing

Etymologies

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

[Latin rūmen; akin to Sanskrit romantha-, ruminant, chewing the cud.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin rūmen.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word rumen.

Examples

  • Unlike converting methane from cow shit into electricity, a method that requires expensive gear, this method generates electricity as the microorganisms in rumen fluid break down the complex carbohydrates in roughage.

    Boing Boing: August 28, 2005 - September 3, 2005 Archives 2005

  •       The rumen is the stomach that has always intrigued me most, even more for its inhabitants than for its internal landscape.

    The Body of a Cow 2008

  • The rumen is the stomach that has always intrigued me most, even more for its inhabitants than for its internal landscape.

    The Body of a Cow 2008

  • After being swallowed, food enters a large compartment called the rumen, which makes up about 80 percent of the stomach.

    Deer Professor Karl V. 2005

  • Substantiation for the improved "ecosystem" in the rumen are the observations that both intake and digestibility on a basal sugar-cane diet were improved when a highly digestible, but low-protein, roughage in the form of banana stalk was included in the diet (2).

    Chapter 10 1979

  • The cow has four stomachs of which the rumen is the largest, its capacity being about fifty gallons in the average cow, and it is this stomach which fills with gas when a cow bloats.

    The Veterinarian Charles James Korinek

  • The rumen is the largest compartment, with a capacity of more than twenty gallons.

    Common Diseases of Farm Animals R. A. Craig

  • The muscular wall develops finger-like projections called rumen papillae which grow rapidly to provide a large surface area through which essential nutrients can be absorbed.

    FWi - All News 2010

  • The muscular wall develops finger-like projections called rumen papillae which grow rapidly to provide a large surface area through which essential nutrients can be absorbed.

    FWi - All News 2010

  • A ruminant is a mammal that digests plant-based food by initially softening it within the animal’s first stomach, known as the rumen, then regurgitating the semi-digested mass, now known as cud, and chewing it again.

    CSI: Miami – “Bad Seed” Review 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.