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cupule

American  
[kyoo-pyool] / ˈkju pjul /

noun

  1. Botany.

    1. a cup-shaped whorl of hardened, cohering bracts, as in the acorn.

    2. a cup-shaped outgrowth of the thallus of certain liverworts.

    3. the apothecium of a cup fungus.

  2. Zoology. a small cup-shaped sucker or similar organ or part.


cupule British  
/ ˈkjuːpjuːl /

noun

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

"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

Etymology

Origin of cupule

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


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.

See Examples For:

The team found that, as with the outer seed coat in modern angiosperm seeds, the cupule tissue curved around the developing seeds.

From Science Magazine ● May 26, 2021

Now, having a whole group of potential closest relatives with a variety of cupule structures, “gives us different ideas about where the carpel has come from,” Donoghue says.

From Science Magazine ● May 26, 2021

They called the outer coat a cupule and proposed that it was the precursor to the outer coat, or integument, of angiosperm seeds.

From Science Magazine ● May 26, 2021

Until now, researchers had focused on a fossil cupule plant called Caytonia, discovered in Yorkshire, U.K., as the closest relative to angiosperms.

From Science Magazine ● May 26, 2021

The female flowers, to the number of two, three, or four, are clustered in a "cupule" of overlapping scales, like those of the Oak.

From Wayside and Woodland Trees A pocket guide to the British sylva by Edward Step

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