Definitions

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

  • adjective Biology Circular in cross section; cylindrical, sometimes with tapering ends.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Slender and smooth, with a circular transverse section; cylindrical or slightly tapering. See cut under petiole.

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

  • adjective Cylindrical and slightly tapering; columnar, as some stems of plants.

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

  • adjective Having a smooth circular cross-section; cylindrical.

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

  • adjective especially of plant parts; cylindrical and tapering

Etymologies

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

[From Latin teres, teret-, rounded; see terə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin teres ("rounded (cylindrical)").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Terete also means rounded, smooth and round (Oxford English Dictionary).

    August 13, 2011

  • Curiously the Word of the Day notification supplies the only definition of the five aggregated on the full entry page that omits mention of the "tapered at the ends" feature of terete structures.

    May 11, 2016

  • Rodin was a sculptor complete,

    Not least when he sat to excrete.

    That exquisite shaper

    Controlled so his taper

    That each of his turds was terete.

    May 11, 2016