capitate

[kap-i-teyt]

adjective

1. Botany.,  forming or shaped like a head or dense cluster.

2. Biology.,  having an enlarged or swollen, headlike termination.

capitate

/ ˈkæpɪˌteɪt /

adjective

1. botany shaped like a head, as certain flowers or inflorescences

2. zoology having an enlarged headlike end

   a capitate bone

capitate

1. The largest of the carpal bones.

1. Forming a headlike mass or dense cluster, as the flowers of plants in the composite family.

Other Word Forms

• multicapitate adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of capitate¹

1655–65; < Latin capitātus headed, equivalent to capit- (stem of caput ) head + -ātus -ate ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of capitate¹

C17: from Latin capitātus having a (large) head, from caput head

Example Sentences

Spikelets and numerous flowers compressed, crowded in a densely spiked or capitate panicle.

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Ovary.—One-celled; with a disklike summit, tapering into two stout styles with large capitate stigmas.

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Some or all of the anthers become twisted so that insects in probing for honey will touch the anthers with one side of their head and the capitate stigma with the other.

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The carpels are united to form a 4- to 5-chambered ovary, which bears a simple elongated style ending in a capitate stigma; each ovary-chamber contains one to many ovules attached to a central placenta.

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Pistils from five to ten, capitate at their summits, affixed laterally to the middle of the seeds, as in Alchemilla.

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