maxilla
Americannoun
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a jaw or jawbone, especially the upper.
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one of the paired appendages immediately behind the mandibles of arthropods.
noun
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the upper jawbone in vertebrates See jaw
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any member of one or two pairs of mouthparts in insects and other arthropods used as accessory jaws
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of maxilla
1670–80; < New Latin, special use of Latin maxilla lower jaw, diminutive of māla (< *maxlā ) upper jaw, cheekbone
Vocabulary lists containing maxilla
Human Anatomy and Physiology - High School
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Animals (Zoology) - Middle School
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Human Anatomy and Physiology - 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.
See Examples For:
“The injuries I suffered led to a long and difficult recovery that I am still trying to recover from, including treatment for a severe traumatic brain injury, a shattered maxilla and a bone graft procedure.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
The Maori and Moriori skeletal remains, including skulls without mandibles, craniums, loose mandibles and maxilla fragments, were largely collected by Austrian taxidermist and grave robber Andreas Reischek from 1877 to 1889.
From Reuters ● Oct. 2, 2022
The skeletal remains, which include skulls without mandibles, craniums, loose mandibles and maxilla fragments, were handed over in an official ceremony in Vienna on Tuesday, where there was a panel and presentation.
From Reuters ● Sep. 29, 2022
He obtained access to cadaver skulls and analyzed them, with particular focus on what he sees as the face’s most important bone: the maxilla.
From New York Times ● Aug. 20, 2020
Description.—A yellowish-cinnamon colored animal, with body of medium size, zygomatic plate of maxilla deep and mastoid process small.
From Subspeciation in Pocket Gophers of Kansas, [KU. Vol. 1 No. 11] by Hall, E. Raymond (Eugene Raymond)
A few inches away sits a skull the size of a watermelon, thick ivory fangs jutting from its bleached maxillae.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
Organs of similar type on the maxillae and epipharynx appear to exercise the function of taste.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 4 "Hero" to "Hindu Chronology" by Various
Eugereon is a remarkable Permian fossil, with jaws that are typically hemipterous except that the second maxillae are not fused and with cockroach-like wings.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 3 "Helmont, Jean" to "Hernosand" by Various
Skull: Generally larger in every measurement taken; zygomatic arches shorter; width across alveolar processes of maxillae greater; zygomatic arches more widely spreading, and widest in extreme posterior region rather than in region of jugal-squamosal suture.
From The Pocket Gophers (Genus Thomomys) of Utah, Vol. 1 No. 1 Kansas University Publications. by Durrant, Stephen D.
The head of an insect carries usually four pairs of conspicuous appendages—feelers, mandibles and two pairs of maxillae, so that the presence of four primitive somites is immediately evident.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 4 "Hero" to "Hindu Chronology" 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.
