cloaca
Americannoun
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Zoology.
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the common cavity into which the intestinal, urinary, and generative canals open in birds, reptiles, amphibians, many fishes, and certain mammals.
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a similar cavity in invertebrates.
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a sewer, especially an ancient sewer.
noun
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a cavity in the pelvic region of most vertebrates, except higher mammals, and certain invertebrates, into which the alimentary canal and the genital and urinary ducts open
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a sewer
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of cloaca
1650–60; < Latin clo ( u ) āca, cluāca sewer, drain; probably akin to Greek klýzein to wash, wash away
Vocabulary lists containing cloaca
Ancient Rome - Middle School and High School
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Animals (Zoology) - High School
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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.
They transform some of those same nitrogen-based compounds into solids known as "urates," which are expelled through a shared opening called the cloaca.
From Science Daily • Oct. 25, 2025
As the researchers report today in Science, mom released a white substance from her cloaca, which her young immediately gobbled up.
From Science Magazine • Mar. 6, 2024
It can “breathe” through its cloaca if it needs to.
From NewsForKids.net • Feb. 6, 2024
Instead they have a single orifice called a cloaca that is used for defecation as well as reproduction in both males and females.
From Scientific American • Feb. 16, 2023
It is significant that the whole type of their cloaca much resembles that of the Crocodilia and Chelonia, in opposition to that of the Lacertilia.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 7 "Bible" to "Bisectrix" by Various
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.
