lamina
Americannoun
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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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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:
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
This usually happens in a part of our gut called the lamina propria.
From Science Daily ● May 16, 2024
The impact fractured the C5 lamina in Cogliano’s cervical spine.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 17, 2023
Figure 5.64 shows a point P as the center of mass of a lamina.
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
It consists of four parts, the right and left pedicles and the right and left laminae.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
The arch is formed by the paired pedicles and paired laminae.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
Plates of hepatocytes called hepatic laminae radiate outward from the portal vein in each hepatic lobule.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
The floor of the third ventricle is developed from the basal laminae, which here are not very important and from which the tuber cinereum and, until the fourth month, single corpus mammillare are developed.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 4 "Bradford, William" to "Brequigny, Louis" by Various
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 Rangachari, K.
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.
