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placoid

American  
[plak-oid] / ˈplæk ɔɪd /

adjective

  1. platelike, as the scales or dermal investments of sharks.


placoid British  
/ ˈplækɔɪd /

adjective

  1. platelike or flattened

  2. (of the scales of sharks and other elasmobranchs) toothlike; composed of dentine with an enamel tip and basal pulp cavity

"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

Etymology

Origin of placoid

1835–45; < Greek plak- (stem of pláx ) something flat, tablet + -oid


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:

Researchers in this study also revisited an analysis of fossilized placoid scales, or tiny tooth-like scales that cover sharks, from the megalodon.

From Salon ● Mar. 10, 2025

Shark teeth likely evolved from the jagged scales that cover their skin, called placoid scales.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

Besides the teeth there perhaps remain relics of the placoid scales in the anatomy of the higher vertebrata, in the membrane bones.

From Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

A singular species, rare, but easily recognized by its peculiar, placoid scales, large and firmly embedded in the peridial wall.

From The North American Slime-Moulds A Descriptive List of All Species of Myxomycetes Hitherto Reported from the Continent of North America, with Notes on Some Extra-Limital Species by Thomas H. (Thomas Huston) MacBride

Placoid, plak′oid, adj. plate-like.—Placoid fishes, an order of fishes having placoid scales, irregular plates of hard bone, not imbricated, but placed near together in the skin.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various

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