maxilla

American  

[mak-sil-uh] / mækˈsɪl ə /

noun

• maxillae
  plural

1. a jaw or jawbone, especially the upper.

2. one of the paired appendages immediately behind the mandibles of arthropods.

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maxilla British  

/ mækˈsɪlə, mækˈsɪlə /

noun

1. the upper jawbone in vertebrates See jaw

2. any member of one or two pairs of mouthparts in insects and other arthropods used as accessory jaws

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maxilla Scientific  

/ măk-sĭl′ə /

• maxillae
  plural

1. The upper part of the jaw in vertebrate animals.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• maxillar
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• maxillae
  plural

Etymology

Origin of maxilla

1670–80; < New Latin, special use of Latin maxilla lower jaw, diminutive of māla (< *maxlā ) upper jaw, cheekbone

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

maxilla maxillae

“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

But the maxilla is actually a separate bone of its own.

From New York Times ● Aug. 20, 2020

Diagnosis.—Small; marginal teeth conical, slender and recurved at tips; marginal tooth-row without caniniform enlargement; narial opening enlarged and bordered dorsally, posteriorly and ventrally by maxilla; maxilla with foramen opening laterally at posteroventral corner of naris.

From Two New Pelycosaurs from the Lower Permian of Oklahoma by Richard C. Fox

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

Biting mandibles; minute but distinct-maxillulae; second maxillae incompletely fused.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 4 "Hero" to "Hindu Chronology" by Various

Biting mandibles; second maxillae incompletely fused; maxillulae often distinct.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 4 "Hero" to "Hindu Chronology" by Various

The maxillae of the hinder pair become more or less fused together to form a “lower lip” or labium, and the segment of these appendages is, in some insects, only imperfectly united with the head-capsule.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 4 "Hero" to "Hindu Chronology" 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 Stephen D. Durrant

Related Words

• bone
• mouth