meatus

[mee-ey-tuhs]

noun

Anatomy.

plural

meatuses, meatus 

1. an opening or foramen, especially in a bone or bony structure, as the opening of the ear or nose.

meatus

/ mɪˈeɪtəs /

noun

1. anatomy a natural opening or channel, such as the canal leading from the outer ear to the eardrum

Other Word Forms

• meatal adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of meatus¹

1655–65; < Latin meātus course, channel, equivalent to meā ( re ) to go, extend, have a course + -tus suffix of v. action

Word History and Origins

Origin of meatus¹

C17: from Latin: passage, from meāre to pass

Example Sentences

On rare occasions, a false meatus can be located just above the normal one.

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Transmission in External Ear.—The external ear consists of the pinna, or auricle, and the external auditory meatus, or canal, at the bottom of which we find the membrana tympani, or drum head.

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Many were troubled with a tinnitus aurium, or singing in the ears; and numbers suffered from violent earaches or pains in the meatus auditorius, which in some turned to an abscess.

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Stitching pain at lobe of left ear and deep in and above external auditory meatus.

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Try the experiment—stop the meatus auditorius with beeswax, and try it, for half a dozen Sabbaths, even with the knowledge, that you can remove the impediment at will, which I cannot!

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