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
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
She said her labrum injury is less serious than feared, though it will prevent her from training before the Games.
From BBC ● Jan. 13, 2026
Graterol, 27, missed the 2025 season after undergoing surgery on the labrum in his right shoulder in November 2024.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2026
The labrum is highly bullate, with a row of minute teeth on the crest, placed very close together in the middle.
From A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia With Figures of all the Species. by Charles Darwin
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
Verily, a speech worthy of the orator and of those who sent him, similes habent labra lactucas.
From Bartholomew Sastrow Being the Memoirs of a German Burgomaster by Bartholomew Sastrow
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.
