capitulum
Americannoun
plural
capitulanoun
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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
plural
capitula-
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.
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.
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 capitulum articulates with the radius bone of the forearm.
From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013
The articulating surfaces of the distal humerus consist of the trochlea medially and the capitulum laterally.
From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013
On the attachments of the Urodele rib to the vertebra and their homologies with the capitulum and tuberculum of the Amniote rib.
From The Ancestry of Modern Amphibia: A Review of the Evidence by Eaton, Theodore H. (Theodore Hildreth)
In a rather young specimen, however, with its capitulum one fifth of an inch long, each appendage certainly consisted of a single segment, with spines only on the summit.
From A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia With Figures of all the Species. by Darwin, Charles
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.
