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maxilla

American  
[mak-sil-uh] / mækˈsɪl ə /

noun

plural

maxillae

  1. a jaw or jawbone, especially the upper.

  2. one of the paired appendages immediately behind the mandibles of arthropods.

maxilla British  
/ mækˈsɪlə, mækˈsɪlə /

noun

  1. the upper jawbone in vertebrates See jaw

  2. any member of one or two pairs of mouthparts in insects and other arthropods used as accessory jaws

"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
maxilla Scientific  
/ măk-sĭl′ə /

plural

maxillae

  1. The upper part of the jaw in vertebrate animals.

Other Word 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 inferior porifera, ore clauso ascendens, hinc, ore hiante, ultra maxillam speriorem modice protractam extensa.

From Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1. With an Account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed During The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative Of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea. by Stokes, John Lort

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

Maxilla of Harpalus caliginosus, with all sclerites marked.

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

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.