labrum
1 Americannoun
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labra
plural
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a lip or liplike part.
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Zoology.
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the anterior, unpaired member of the mouthparts of an arthropod, projecting in front of the mouth.
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the outer margin of the aperture of a shell of a gastropod.
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Anatomy. a ring of cartilage about the edge of a joint surface of a bone.
noun
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labra
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of labrum1
1810–20; < Latin: lip; akin to labium
Origin of labrum2
< Latin lābrum basin, contraction of lavābrum bathtub, equivalent to lavā ( re ) to wash + -brum instrumental suffix
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:
Luffy beetles have the dorsal ridge teeth found in this lineage, but their labrum is not completely sclerotized.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026
Kessler, who played only five games last season after having surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder, is aware the Lakers paid a big price to get him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
With just one competition under her belt this season, she dislocated her shoulder and sustained a torn labrum in what she described as the "silliest fall" in training in Switzerland last month.
From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2026
The Torrance native is trying to become the first snowboarder to win three consecutive gold medals in halfpipe but will be competing with a torn labrum.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2026
Behind the labrum arises a process—the epipharynx—which in some blood-sucking insects becomes a formidable piercing-organ.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 4 "Hero" to "Hindu Chronology" by Various
Thomas was already playing with partially torn labra in both shoulders.
From New York Times ● Sep. 25, 2020
He acknowledged the cold truths about torn labra: They can’t heal on their own, and most players who suffer similar ruptures end up on the operating table.
From New York Times ● Apr. 2, 2019
First, they suggest that the anomalocaridid’s frontal appendages are analogous to the mouthparts, or labra, of arthropods.
From Nature ● Jul. 15, 2014
There is in the Vatican a magnificent porphyry labrum found in one of the imperial baths; and Baccius, a great modern authority on baths, speaks of labra made of glass.
From Museum of Antiquity A Description of Ancient Life by T. L. (Thomas Louis) Haines
But a Della Cruscan academician might at least have corrected by his dictionary the spelling of labra.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 07, May, 1858 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.
