lamina
Americannoun
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laminae,
plural
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laminas
plural
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a thin plate, scale, or layer.
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a layer or coat lying over another, as the plates of minerals or bones.
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Botany. the blade or expanded portion of a leaf.
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Geology. a layer of sediment or sedimentary rock only a small fraction of an inch (less than a centimeter) in thickness.
noun
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a thin plate or layer, esp of bone or mineral
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botany the flat blade of a leaf, petal, or thallus
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laminae
plural
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The expanded area of a leaf or petal; a blade.
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See more at leaf
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A thin layer of bone, membrane, or other tissue.
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The thinnest recognizable layer of sediment, differing from other layers in color, composition, or particle size. Laminae are usually less than 1 cm (0.39 inches) thick.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of lamina
From Latin, dating back to 1650–60; see origin at lame 2
Vocabulary lists containing lamina
Structural Engineering
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Engineering - High School
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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 new teeth are rooted in a band of tissue called the dental lamina that is present in the jaw but has never been documented elsewhere.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2025
In humans, the dental lamina disintegrates after we grow our adult teeth, but many vertebrates retain the ability to replace their teeth.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2025
The impact fractured the C5 lamina in Cogliano’s cervical spine.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 17, 2023
The lamina is perfectly balanced about its center of mass.
From Textbooks ● Mar. 30, 2016
Alvarez wondered what it was about a thin lamina of clay, barely a quarter of an inch thick, that could account for such a dramatic moment in Earth’s history.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
The scan also revealed unique characteristics, including a Y-shaped arrangement of supporting bones known as laminae.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
The arch is formed by the paired pedicles and paired laminae.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
It consists of four parts, the right and left pedicles and the right and left laminae.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
The vertebral arch consists of the pedicles, which attach to the vertebral body, and the laminae, which come together to form the roof of the arch.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
The turtle was sluggish and ate only five or six mealworms while in captivity; no growth was detectable on the laminae of the shell.
From Natural History of the Ornate Box Turtle, Terrapene ornata ornata Agassiz by John M. Legler
In these grasses the laminas are folded flat on their midribs so that each half of the blade is folded flat on the other, the inner surfaces being in contact.
From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by K. Rangachari
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.
