hilum
Americannoun
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Botany.
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the mark or scar on a seed produced by separation from its funicle or placenta.
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the nucleus of a granule of starch.
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Mycology. a mark or scar on a spore at the point of attachment to the spore-bearing structure.
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Anatomy. the region at which the vessels, nerves, etc., enter or emerge from a part.
noun
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botany
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a scar on the surface of a seed marking its point of attachment to the seed stalk (funicle)
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the nucleus of a starch grain
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a deep fissure or depression on the surface of a bodily organ around the point of entrance or exit of vessels, nerves, or ducts
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A mark or scar on a seed, such as a bean, showing where it was formerly attached to the plant. The hilum indicates the point of attachment of the funiculus.
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A depression or opening through which nerves, ducts, or blood vessels pass in an organ or a gland, as in the medial aspect of the lungs or the kidneys .
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of hilum
1650–60; < New Latin; Latin: little thing, trifle; see nil
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.
Internally, the kidney has three regions—an outer cortex, a medulla in the middle, and the renal pelvis in the region called the hilum of the kidney.
From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022
The arteries, veins, and nerves that supply the kidney enter and exit at the renal hilum.
From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022
Blood enters and exits the kidney at the renal hilum, and the renal blood supply starts with the branching of the aorta into the renal arteries.
From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022
The visceral and parietal pleurae connect to each other at the hilum.
From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013
Pod splitting wholly or part-way down into 3 or at length into 6 valves; seeds many, naked at the hilum.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa
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.
