mandible
Americannoun
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the bone of the lower jaw.
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(in birds)
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the lower part of the bill.
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mandibles, the upper and lower parts of the bill.
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(in arthropods) one of the first pair of mouthpart appendages, typically a jawlike biting organ, but styliform or setiform in piercing and sucking species.
noun
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the lower jawbone in vertebrates See jaw
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either of a pair of mouthparts in insects and other arthropods that are usually used for biting and crushing food
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ornithol either the upper or the lower part of the bill, esp the lower part
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The lower part of the jaw in vertebrate animals.
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See more at skeleton
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One of the pincerlike mouthparts of insects and other arthropods.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of mandible
1375–1425; late Middle English < Late Latin mandibula jaw, equivalent to mandi- (combining form of Latin mandere to chew) + -bula noun suffix of means
Explanation
Do you know where your mandible is located? Your mandible is your jawbone. Without a mandible, you wouldn't be able to eat pizza. In vertebrates (including humans), the mandible is the lower, hinged part of the jaw; in birds, both the top and bottom sections of the beak are called mandibles. The Latin root is mandere, "to chew," and chewing is the main function of the mandible, which holds your lower teeth in place and swings freely up and down.
Vocabulary lists containing mandible
Gross, Anatomy!
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Human Anatomy and Physiology - High School
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Animals (Zoology) - Middle 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.
Holding your mandible in place with your hands, or one of Kim Kardashian’s Skims Seamless Sculpt Face Wraps™, is prohibited.
From Salon • Nov. 6, 2025
The county medical examiner’s office tried for years to find the owner of the errant piece of mandible, but their DNA databases turned up no matches.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 20, 2024
“It’s a convincing case,” Ward says, “but it’s just one mandible until about 2 million years ago,” when at least two members of the genus, Homo habilis and H. erectus, appear elsewhere in eastern Africa.
From Science Magazine • Apr. 3, 2024
The evolutionary level of the trunk appeared to relate to the ability of the mandible to cut horizontally, strongly suggesting a co-evolution between the trunk and the mandible in longirostrine gomphotheres.
From Science Daily • Nov. 28, 2023
Bill lengthened, very slender, arched, the base depressed, the sides compressed, the tip very sharp and entire, the margins bent inwards and minutely dentated; under mandible beneath convex.
From Zoological Illustrations, Volume II or Original Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, or Interesting Animals by Swainson, William
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.
