terete

[tuh-reet, ter-eet]

adjective

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

2. cylindrical or slightly tapering.

terete

/ ˈtɛriːt /

adjective

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

Other Word Forms

• subterete adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of terete¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of terete¹

C17: from Latin teres smooth, from terere to rub

Example Sentences

Archegonium with a slender persistent style, solitary on a usually very short branch; the perianth free from the involucral leaves, oval or oblong, terete or angular, variously carinate, cristate, or ciliate.

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Nearly 300 species are Australian or Polynesian, and have terete or vertically compressed leaf stalks, instead of the bipinnate leaves of the much fewer species of America, Africa, etc.

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A. cylindricum and A. Vandarum have terete leaves like Vanda teres, the former with white flowers, having a fleshy yellow and red lip, and the latter, which is more membraneous in substance, being white.

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In consequence of this it is said to be terete.

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Plasmodiocarp terete, elongated, flexuous, creeping, and reticulate, irregularly dehiscent; the wall a more or less thickened membrane, externally naked, with the granules of lime on the inner surface.

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