osculum
Americannoun
-
oscula
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of osculum
1605–15; < New Latin, Latin ōsculum, equivalent to ōs mouth + -culum -cule 1
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:
Oocytes arise by the differentiation of amoebocytes and are retained within the spongocoel, whereas spermatozoa result from the differentiation of choanocytes and are ejected via the osculum.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Early larval development occurs within the sponge, and free-swimming larvae are then released via the osculum.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Their food is trapped when water passes through the ostia and out through the osculum.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Early larval development occurs within the sponge, and free-swimming larvae are then released through the osculum.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 25, 2013
They are never more than about a quarter of an inch in diameter and never possess more than one osculum.
From Freshwater Sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa by Nelson Annandale
Those “little mouths” are called ostia, and the openings where water flows out are oscula.
From New York Times ● Aug. 10, 2022
The form of the oscula is characteristic in many cases.
From Freshwater Sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa by Nelson Annandale
Thence it passes into other canals, which communicate with what remains of the central cavity, and so out of the oscula.
From Freshwater Sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa by Nelson Annandale
The oscula are small; some of them are raised above the general surface but not on regular turret-shaped eminences.
From Freshwater Sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa by Nelson Annandale
Their surface was flat or undulated gently, except round the oscula where it was raised into sharply conical eminences with furrowed sides.
From Freshwater Sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa by Nelson Annandale
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.
