radula

[raj-oo-luh]

noun

plural

radulae 

1. a chitinous band in the mouth of most mollusks, set with numerous, minute, horny teeth and drawn backward and forward over the floor of the mouth in the process of breaking up food.

radula

/ ˈrædjʊlə /

noun

1. a horny tooth-bearing strip on the tongue of molluscs that is used for rasping food

Other Word Forms

• radular adjective
• subradular adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of radula¹

1745–55; < New Latin rādula, Latin: scraper, equivalent to rād ( ere ) to scrape, rub + -ula -ule

Word History and Origins

Origin of radula¹

C19: from Late Latin: a scraping iron, from Latin rādere to scrape

Example Sentences

In a study published Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters, the researchers describe the new structure as a radula, a tonguelike structure covered in teeth that snails and other mollusks use to scrape food into their mouths.

Read more on New York Times

The existence of Typhloesus’s toothy radula led the scientists to deduce that the alien goldfish was in fact a mollusk.

Read more on New York Times

“It is a very exciting find to have a radula, because that is definitive,” said Christopher Whalen, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History who studies cephalopods from the Bear Gulch and was not involved in the new study.

Read more on New York Times

“Just like how all vertebrates have a backbone, all mollusks have a radula.”

Read more on New York Times

These gelatinous slugs swim through the water column and stick their radula through a trunklike proboscis to snag prey, a hunting style similar to what the new study proposes for Typhloesus.

Read more on New York Times