alveolus
[al-vee-uh-luh s]
- a little cavity, pit, or cell, as a cell of a honeycomb.
- an air cell of the lungs, formed by the terminal dilation of tiny air passageways.
- one of the terminal secretory units of a racemose gland.
- the socket within the jawbone in which the root or roots of a tooth are set.
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Origin of alveolus
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for alveolus
Historical Examples
The teeth all are present and entire except that p2 on the right side is missing from its alveolus.
American WeaselsE. Raymond Hall
The tooth should be pulled out straight, lest the alveolus be broken.
Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman TimesJohn Stewart Milne
The margins of the cleft in the lip are also attached to the alveolus by firm reflections of the mucous membrane.
Limited portions of the alveolus are frequently broken in the extraction of teeth.
The inflammation begins close to the alveolus, and may spread back along the palate.
alveolus
- any small pit, cavity, or saclike dilation, such as a honeycomb cell
- any of the sockets in which the roots of the teeth are embedded
- any of the tiny air sacs in the lungs at the end of the bronchioles, through which oxygen is taken into the blood
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Word Origin
C18: from Latin: a little hollow, diminutive of alveus
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for alveolus
n.
1706, from Latin alveolus "a tray, trough, basin; bed of a small river," diminutive of alvus "belly, stomach, paunch, bowels; hold of a ship," from PIE *aulo- "hole, cavity" (cf. Greek aulos "tube, pipe," Old Church Slavonic uliji, Lithuanian aulys "beehive" (hollow trunk), Armenian yli "pregnant").
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
alveolus
(ăl-vē′ə-ləs)- A small angular cavity or pit, such as a tooth socket or an air sac.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
alveolus
[ăl-vē′ə-ləs]
- Any of the tiny air-filled sacs arranged in clusters in the lungs, in which the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place. Also called air sac
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.