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:
Lastly, choanocytes will differentiate into sperm for sexual reproduction, where they will become dislodged from the mesohyl and leave the sponge with expelled water through the osculum.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
In addition to the osculum, sponges have multiple pores called ostia on their bodies that allow water to enter the sponge.
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
It will be noted that the diagram represents an individual with a single osculum or exhalent aperture.
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
These apertures, bear in mind, we call oscula.
From Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20) Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky by Edward Singleton Holden
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
Sponge forming rather thick sheets of considerable size, hard but brittle, almost black in colour; oscula inconspicuous; external membrane supported on a reticulate horizontal skeleton.
From Freshwater Sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa by Nelson Annandale
External membrane closely adherent to the sponge except immediately round the oscula.
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.
