scute

[ skyoot ]

/ skyut /

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noun Zoology.

a dermal bony plate, as on an armadillo, or a large horny plate, as on a turtle.

a large scale.

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Origin of scute

1350–1400 for earlier sense “French coin, écu ”; 1840–50 for current senses; Middle English <Latin scūtum “shield”

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use scute in a sentence

Their body is compressed and not covered with ordinary scales, but with small juxtaposed scutes.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 3|Various
Variation and relative growth in the plastral scutes of the turtle Kinosternon integrum LeConte.
The Amphibians and Reptiles of Michoacn, Mxico|William E. Duellman
In the genus Birkenia the head and body are completely covered by tubercular scutes.
A Guide to the Study of Fishes, Volume 1 (of 2)|David Starr Jordan
The costal scutes join the marginal scutes on the marginal plates.
A New Extinct Emydid Turtle from the Lower Pliocene of Oklahoma|Edwin C. Galbreath

The scutes of some extinct forms articulate with one another by a peg and socket arrangement as in some Ganoid fish.
The Vertebrate Skeleton|Sidney H. Reynolds

British Dictionary definitions for scute

scute

/ (skjuːt) /

noun

zoology a horny or chitinous plate that makes up part of the exoskeleton in armadillos, turtles, fishes, etc

Word Origin for scute

C14 (the name of a French coin; C19 in zoological sense): from Latin scūtum shield

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