columella
[kol-yuh-mel-uh]
- any of various small, columnlike structures of animals or plants; rod or axis.
- Mycology.a small central column of sterile tissue within the sporangium of certain fungi, liverworts, and mosses.
- a small bone in the ear of amphibians, reptiles, and birds.
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Origin of columella
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for columella
Historical Examples
The columella is present and the spores are round and minutely warted.
The Mushroom, Edible and OtherwiseM. E. Hard
This information is obtained from the Latin agriculturist Columella.
The Romance of Words (4th ed.)Ernest Weekley
Columella was born at Gades (Cadiz), and served in the army in Syria.
A History of Roman LiteratureHarold North Fowler
Columella straight, with two or three triradiate verticils of horizontal lateral branches, which are inserted in the shell-wall.
The columella and extra-columella have been already described (p. 251).
The Vertebrate SkeletonSidney H. Reynolds
columella
- biology
- the central part of the spore-producing body of some fungi and mosses
- any similar columnar structure
- Also called: columella auris (ˈɔːrɪs) a small rodlike bone in the middle ear of frogs, reptiles, and birds that transmits sound to the inner ear: homologous to the mammalian stapes
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Word Origin
C16: from Latin: diminutive of columna column
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
columella
(kŏl′yə-mĕl′ə)- A column-shaped anatomical structure.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.