palmate

[ pal-meyt, -mit, pahl-, pah-meyt ]

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.

  1. Zoology. web-footed.

  2. Furniture.

    • decorated with palmettes.

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

Origin of palmate

1
First recorded in 1750–60, palmate is from the Latin word palmātus shaped like a palm. See palm1, -ate1
  • Often pal·mat·ed [pal-mey-tid, pahl- pah-mey-] /ˈpæl meɪ tɪd, ˈpɑl- ˈpɑ meɪ-/ .

Other words from palmate

  • pal·mate·ly, adverb
  • sub·pal·mate, adjective
  • sub·pal·mat·ed, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use palmate in a sentence

  • These are, or may be, included in the palmated class, as they are evidently woven for triumphal occasions.

    Needlework As Art | Marian Alford
  • Head and skull as in Soricidæ, but with palmated feet and compressed tail, as in Myogalidæ.

  • The marsh and lake tortoises have their feet palmated, to enable them to move either on the water or on land.

    The Western World | W.H.G. Kingston
  • The antlers are greatly palmated and of enormous size, fine specimens measuring as much as 11 ft. between the tips.

  • Over the palm-trees' feathery crests sailed a black vulture, its palmated wing-tips spread like inky fingers against the blue.

    Quick Action | Robert W. Chambers

British Dictionary definitions for palmate

palmate

palmated

/ (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

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

Origin of palmate

1
C18: from Latin palmatus, from palma palm; see palm ²

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 palmate

palmate

[ pălmāt′, 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.

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

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.