cupule

[ kyoo-pyool ]

noun

Botany.
- a cup-shaped whorl of hardened, cohering bracts, as in the acorn.
- a cup-shaped outgrowth of the thallus of certain liverworts.
- the apothecium of a cup fungus.
Zoology. a small cup-shaped sucker or similar organ or part.

Origin of cupule

1820–30; <New Latin cūpula,Late Latin: small tub; see cupola

Words Nearby cupule

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use cupule in a sentence

Among the specimens of the last class, one sort, the cupule, is extremely widespread.
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, February 1899 | Various
Bracts forming a fleshy or hard cupule which envelops the one to several fruits.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 8 | Various
The latter are in clusters of a few only, and each separate flower is enclosed in a cupule of overlapping scales.
Field and Woodland Plants | William S. Furneaux
In the Chestnut the cupule forms the bur; in the Hazel, a leafy husk.
The Elements of Botany | Asa Gray
Here the involucre, in the form of a cup at the base, is called the cupule.
The Elements of Botany | Asa Gray

British Dictionary definitions for cupule

cupule

/ (ˈkjuːpjuːl) /

noun

biology a cup-shaped part or structure, such as the cup around the base of an acorn

Origin of cupule

C19: from Late Latin cūpula; see cupola

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

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