palmate

American  

[pal-meyt, -mit, pahl-, pah-meyt] / ˈpæl meɪt, -mɪt, ˈpɑl-, ˈpɑ meɪt /

Often palmated

adjective

1. shaped like an open palm or like a hand with the fingers extended, as a leaf or an antler.

2. Botany. having four or more lobes or leaflets radiating from a single point.

3. Zoology. web-footed.

4. Furniture.

   1. decorated with palmettes.

   2. (in furniture of the 17th century) having bands of semicircles enclosing a radiating leaf form.

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palmate British  

/ ˈpælmeɪt, -mɪt /

adjective

1. shaped like an open hand

   palmate antlers

2. botany having more than three lobes or segments that spread out from a common point

   palmate leaves

3. (of the feet of most water birds) having three toes connected by a web

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palmate Scientific  

/ păl′māt′,päl′- /

1. Having a shape similar to that of a hand with the fingers extended. Some kinds of coral and the antlers of moose and certain deer are palmate.

2. Having three or more veins, leaflets, or lobes radiating from one point. Maples have palmately lobed leaves.

3. Having webbed toes. The feet of many swimming and diving birds are palmate.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subpalmated
  adjective
• subpalmate
  adjective
• palmately
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of palmate

First recorded in 1750–60, palmate is from the Latin word palmātus shaped like a palm. See palm ¹, -ate ¹

Example Sentences

Palmate newts have recently been discovered in Cambridge too and the question of their origins also requires investigation.

From Scientific American • Dec. 24, 2017

Palmate, when leaflets or the divisions of a leaf all spread from the apex of the petiole, like the hand with the outspread fingers, 57, 58.

From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa

Yet even there we may trace such analogies,—as between the Palmate or Aquatic Birds, for instance, and the Birds of Prey, or between the Frigate Bird and the Kites.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 09, No. 54, April, 1862 by Various

Palmate: like the palm of the hand, with finger-like processes.

From Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology by Smith, John. B.