capitulum
Americannoun
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capitula
plural
noun
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a racemose inflorescence in the form of a disc of sessile flowers, the youngest at the centre. It occurs in the daisy and related plants
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anatomy zoology a headlike part, esp the enlarged knoblike terminal part of a long bone, antenna, etc
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capitula
plural
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A small knob or head-shaped part, such as a protuberance of a bone or the tip of an insect's antenna.
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An inflorescence consisting of a compact mass of small stalkless flowers, as in the English daisy. The yellow central portion of the capitulum of a daisy consists of disk flowers, while the outer white, petallike structures are actually ray flowers. The capitulum is the characteristic inflorescence of the composite family (Asteraceae) of flowering plants.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of capitulum
1715–25; < Latin, equivalent to capit- (stem of caput ) head + -ulum, neuter of -ulus -ule
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.
See Examples For:
Jerome, in fact, seems to have been the first to unambiguously use the term capitulum to refer to a numbered, titled segment of a text.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 29, 2014
The articulating surfaces of the distal humerus consist of the trochlea medially and the capitulum laterally.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
The capitulum articulates with the radius bone of the forearm.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
Description.—The capitulum is not much compressed, a horizontal section giving an oval figure; it is placed obliquely on the peduncle, the scuta descending lower than the terga and carina.
From A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia With Figures of all the Species. by Darwin, Charles
In full grown specimens, the terga almost invariably drop out and are lost; but even in this case, a long brownish cleft in the membrane of the capitulum, marks their former position.
From A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia With Figures of all the Species. by Darwin, Charles
The sterile bracts of the daisy occasionally produce capitula, and give rise to the hen-and-chickens daisy.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 5 "Fleury, Claude" to "Foraker" by Various
In the capitula of Compositae we sometimes find the florets converted into green leaves.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 5 "Fleury, Claude" to "Foraker" by Various
I find Midges, Plant-lice and Ants caught in it, as well as tufted seeds which have blown from the capitula of the Cichoriaceae.
From More Hunting Wasps by Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander
The trees had evidently not flowered last year; many of the buds were of some size, and such contained flower buds, each capitula being in addition enveloped in three bracteæ densely beset with brown hair.
From Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and the Neighbouring Countries by Griffith, William
Before the 'Opus Majus,' Bacon, according to his own account, had written nothing except a few slight treatises, "capitula quaedam."
From Cabinet Portrait Gallery of British Worthies Volume I by Anonymous
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.
