Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Showing results for osculum. Search instead for ovulum.

osculum

American  
[os-kyuh-luhm] / ˈɒs kjə ləm /

noun

  • oscula
    plural
  1. a small mouthlike aperture, as of a sponge.


osculum British  
/ ˈɒskjʊləm /

noun

  1. zoology a mouthlike aperture, esp the opening in a sponge out of which water passes

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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:

Water exits through a top opening called an 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

Their food is trapped when water passes through the ostia and out through the osculum.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

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

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

It also differs from S. fragilis in having extremely small and inconspicuous oscula.

From Freshwater Sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa by Nelson Annandale

When the embryo has become partly developed, it detaches itself from the parent sponge, and, issuing from the oscula, propels itself through the water by means of a number of flagella.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 601, July 9, 1887 by Various

Dermal membrane in close contact with the skeleton; pores and oscula inconspicuous.

From Freshwater Sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa by Nelson Annandale

Sponge flat, lichenoid, never of great thickness, devoid of branches, dense in texture but very friable; colour brown, green, or whitish; oscula numerous, small, flat, distinctly star-shaped.

From Freshwater Sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa by Nelson Annandale

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 14,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training