cerumen
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of cerumen
1735–45; < New Latin, equivalent to Latin cēr ( a ) wax + ( alb ) umen albumen
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.
Like humans, cetaceans — whales, dolphins, porpoises — produce ear wax, and in certain species, this wax, or cerumen, builds up over their lifetime.
From Salon • Mar. 6, 2022
Shell's plans to explore for oil off of South Africa's eastern shore, near a region known as the Wild Coast, threatened to etch in the cerumen of so many whales a dark new chapter.
From Salon • Mar. 6, 2022
The growth of two fungi commonly present in otomycosis was also significantly inhibited by human cerumen.
From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015
While studies conducted up until the 1960s found little evidence supporting an antibacterial role for cerumen, more recent studies have found that cerumen provides some bactericidal protection against some strains of bacteria.
From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015
Woakes presented a paper on what he designated "ear-sneezing," due to the caking of cerumen in one ear.
From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Pyle, Walter L. (Walter Lytle)
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.
