maxilla
Americannoun
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a jaw or jawbone, especially the upper.
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one of the paired appendages immediately behind the mandibles of arthropods.
noun
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the upper jawbone in vertebrates See jaw
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any member of one or two pairs of mouthparts in insects and other arthropods used as accessory jaws
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of maxilla
1670–80; < New Latin, special use of Latin maxilla lower jaw, diminutive of māla (< *maxlā ) upper jaw, cheekbone
Vocabulary lists containing maxilla
Human Anatomy and Physiology - High School
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Animals (Zoology) - Middle School
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Human Anatomy and Physiology - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The neighborhood has lost the Maxilla and Mandible store, an inimitable, three-decade-old fixture that specialized in fossils and skulls, and Ottomanelli Brothers butcher shop, which offered meats not found in supermarkets.
From New York Times • Feb. 2, 2012
Maxilla of Harpalus caliginosus, with all sclerites marked.
From Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology by Smith, John. B.
Maxilla inferior porifera, ore clauso ascendens, hinc, ore hiante, ultra maxillam speriorem modice protractam extensa.
Disease of Left Maxilla, which displaced the eyeball and caused double vision.
From Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. by Miles, Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
