caducous

American  

[kuh-doo-kuhs, -dyoo-] / kəˈdu kəs, -ˈdju- /

adjective

1. Botany. dropping off very early, as leaves.

2. Zoology. subject to shedding.

3. transitory; perishable.

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caducous British  

/ kəˈdjuːkəs /

adjective

1. biology (of parts of a plant or animal) shed during the life of the organism

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caducous Scientific  

/ kə-do̅o̅′kəs /

1. Detaching or dropping off at an early stage of development. The gills of most amphibians and the sepals or stipules of certain plants are caducous.

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Etymology

Origin of caducous

First recorded in 1675–85 for obsolete sense; 1805–10 for current senses; from Latin cadūcus “unsteady, perishable,” equivalent to cad(ere) “to fall” + -ūcus adjective suffix ( see -ous)

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

caducous

They invariably come laden with words that seem meant to prove his vocabulary is bigger than yours: flocculent, crapulent, caducous, anaglypta, mephitic, velutinous.

From New York Times ● Oct. 1, 2020

P. convex, then exp. or depr., whitish tinged fawn at disc, covered with fawn adpr. fibrillose scales; g. broad, free yellowish-white; s. whitish, base swollen, ring cottony, caducous; flesh white, brick-red then brownish when broken.

From European Fungus Flora: Agaricaceae by George Massee

Furthermore, the horns—or rather antlers—of the deer are caducous, shedding annually; while those of the antelopes are persistent, remaining throughout the life-time of the animal—as with goats, sheep, and oxen.

From Quadrupeds, What They Are and Where Found A Book of Zoology for Boys by William Harvey

Embryo straight.—Trees, with rounded heart-shaped simple leaves, caducous stipules, and red-purple flowers in umbel-like clusters along the branches of the last or preceding years, appearing before the leaves, acid to the taste.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray

Sepals 3–5, usually 4, concave, petal-like, very caducous.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray

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