lunula
Americannoun
noun
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Etymology
Origin of lunula
First recorded in 1565–75; from Latin lūnula “crescent-shaped ornament,” literally “little moon,” equivalent to lūn(a) “moon” + -ula, feminine diminutive noun suffix; see -ule
Explanation
You know how we refer to anything to do with the moon as "lunar"? Well, that word plays into the meaning of lunula, which is something with a curved, half-moon shape — like the white at the base of your fingernails. The Latin word for moon is lūna, which was also one of the name of the Roman moon goddess. From that we get lunula, which is the name of the nail matrix, the living part of the fingernail and toenail, a visible white, half-moon-shape at the nail’s base. Here's a spelling hint: the plural of lunula is lunulae, adding an e instead of an s, a spelling rule peculiar to words that have a Latin origin and end in a.
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 museum's Bronze age collection includes gold ingots, bracelets, and a lunula necklace.
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2025
The museum's Bronze Age collection includes gold ingots, bracelets, and a lunula necklace.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2025
You may never have heard of this single-celled alga, but sailors and fishermen know its effect very well: the P. lunula algae are the organisms that occasionally make the see glow blue.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 18, 2024
P. lunula is an example of a dinoflagellate -- a single-celled organism that cannot move on its own.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 18, 2024
Of gold work, for which Ireland is especially famous, the principal feature in the bronze age was the lunula, a crescent-shaped flat gold ornament generally decorated at the ends of the crescent.
From The Glories of Ireland by Lennox, P. J.
These lunulae are found in profusion all over Ireland.
From The Glories of Ireland by Lennox, P. J.
The upper side of the lower wings has an abbreviated series of marginal points on the outside of an arched series of violet-coloured whitish lunulae.
From Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Performed between the years 1818 and 1822 — Volume 2 by King, Phillip Parker
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.
