air bladder
a vesicle or sac containing air.
Also called gas bladder, swim bladder. Ichthyology. a gas-filled sac located against the roof of the body cavity of most bony fishes, originally functioning only as a lung, now serving in many higher fishes to regulate hydrostatic pressure.
Origin of air bladder
1Words Nearby air bladder
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use air bladder in a sentence
The air bladder therefore assists the ear of the catfish as the tympanum and its bones assist the ear of the higher animals.
In the great majority of fishes, a curious sac or bag known as the swimming or air bladder is found.
Then also, this elaborate air-bladder communicates with the mouth and throat by a tube, which corresponds to a windpipe.
These fishes generally have an air-bladder, and the gills lie close together in a cavity covered by an operculum.
The Sea Shore | William S. FurneauxThe dorsal and ventral fins are both very long; and, as is usual with bottom fishes, the swimming or air bladder is absent.
The Sea Shore | William S. Furneaux
British Dictionary definitions for air bladder
Also called: swim bladder ichthyol an air-filled sac, lying above the alimentary canal in bony fishes, that regulates buoyancy at different depths by a variation in the pressure of the air
any air-filled sac, such as one of the bladders of seaweeds
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for air bladder
An air-filled sac in many fish that helps maintain buoyancy or, in some species, helps in respiration, sound production, or hearing. Also called swim bladder
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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