terete

American  

[tuh-reet, ter-eet] / təˈrit, ˈtɛr it /

adjective

1. slender and smooth, with a circular transverse section.

2. cylindrical or slightly tapering.

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terete British  

/ ˈtɛriːt /

adjective

1. (esp of plant parts) smooth and usually cylindrical and tapering

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subterete
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of terete

1610–20; earlier teret < Latin teret- (stem of teres ) smooth and round, akin to terere to rub

Example Sentences

Spikelets 1-flowered, with a conspicuous filiform pedicel of an abortive second flower about half its length, nearly terete, few, in a simple appressed racemed panicle.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Spikelets terete, many-flowered, in a terminal close cluster involucrate by leafy bracts.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Branches of the style long and slender, terete, thread-shaped, minutely bristly-hairy all over.—Leaves alternate or scattered.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Pod terete or teretish; valves 1-nerved; stigma mostly entire.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Pod terete, flattish or 4–6-sided, the valves 1–3-nerved; stigma small, entire.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa