decussate
Americanadjective
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in the form of an X ; crossed; intersected.
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Botany. arranged along the stem in pairs, each pair at right angles to the pair next above or below, as leaves.
verb (used without object)
verb
adjective
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in the form of the letter X; crossed; intersected
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botany (esp of leaves) arranged in opposite pairs, with each pair at right angles to the one above and below it
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of decussate
First recorded in 1650–60; from Latin decussātus “divided in the form of an X” (past participle of decussāre ), equivalent to Latin decuss(is) “the numeral ten,” originally, “a ten-as weight,” supposedly from unrecorded dec(-em) assis ); see origin at ten, as 2, -ate 1
Explanation
Decussate things cross over each other, forming an X shape. In botany, decussate leaves are arranged along a stem in a way that causes pairs of them to overlap each other. You can use decussate as an adjective or a verb — either way, it's a technical term most commonly used by scientists. In anatomy, nerve fibers that cross from one side of the brain to the other are said to decussate, and when rods of tooth enamel decussate, they cross each other in an X shape. Biologists also describe animal and plant markings this way: "I saw the decussate lines on its back and immediately identified the insect!"
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 major differences between the two are in the type of information that is relayed to the brain and where the tracts decussate.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
Axons from these second neurons then decussate within the spinal cord and ascend to the brain and enter the thalamus, where each synapses with the third neuron in its respective pathway.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
However, within each eye, the axons projecting from the lateral side of the retina do not decussate.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
The axons that decussate in the chiasm are from the medial retinae of either eye, and therefore carry information from the peripheral visual field.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
Thus, leaves normally opposite and decussate may, by fusion, become alternate.
From Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants by Maxwell T. Masters
In his famous dictionary Samuel Johnson notoriously, and gloriously, defined the word “network” as “any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections.”
From Washington Post ● Feb. 17, 2016
A cough, said he, is "a convulsion of the lungs, vellicated by some sharp serosity," and a network is "anything reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections."
From Time Magazine Archive
Network is "any thing reticulated or decussated at equal distances."
From Deformities of Samuel Johnson, Selected from his Works by Anonymous
It consisted of the last letter of the Samaritan alphabet, the tau or tav in its decussated or most primitive form, and may be described, as it has been sometimes, as a cruciform hammer.
Plato says, "He expressed him upon the Universe in the figure of the letter X. The next Power to the Supreme God Was decussated or figured in the shape of a Cross on Universe."
From Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry by Albert Pike
This arrangement in successive decussating pairs gives an advantageous distribution on the stem in four vertical ranks.
From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Asa Gray
The grey matter of the anterior cornua is cut off from the rest by the decussating pyramids and finally disappears.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 4 "Bradford, William" to "Brequigny, Louis" 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.
