ostium
Americannoun
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Anatomy, Zoology. a small opening or orifice, as at the end of the oviduct.
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Zoology. one of the tiny holes in the body of a sponge.
noun
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any of the pores in sponges through which water enters the body
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any of the openings in the heart of an arthropod through which blood enters
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any similar opening
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ostium
First recorded in 1655–65, ostium is from the Latin word ōstium entrance, river mouth
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:
At first it does not quite reach the endocardial cushions in the auricular canal, already mentioned, but leaves a gap, called the ostium primum, between.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 2 "Hearing" to "Helmond" by Various
The removal of the middle turbinated bone permits of inspection of the ostium sphenoidale by anterior rhinoscopy, and pus may be seen escaping from the orifice.
From Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. by Miles, Alexander
This has nothing to do with the foramen ovale, which occurs as an independent perforation higher up, and at first is known as the ostium secundum.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 2 "Hearing" to "Helmond" by Various
The sponge coats unwanted detritus and waste with mucus and sends the coated particles out through small pores in its body called ostia.
From Science Magazine ● Aug. 10, 2022
They would come out of the sponge’s ostia, move across the organism’s surface and aggregate into clumps that could be released with a sneeze, and then quickly gobbled up by other ocean critters.
From New York Times ● Aug. 10, 2022
Other scientists had observed sponges sneezing by pushing water through their ostia before, but no one had confirmed the behavior was a mode of self-cleaning until now.
From Science Magazine ● Aug. 10, 2022
Their food is trapped when water passes through the ostia and out through the osculum.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
In a diagram of a long section of a simple sponge identify the central cavity, body walls, canals, inhalent pores, ostia, and osculum.
From A Guide for the Study of Animals by Lucas, Frederic
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.
