testa

American  

[tes-tuh] / ˈtɛs tə /

noun

Botany.

• testae
  plural

1. the outer, usually hard, integument of a seed.

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testa British  

/ ˈtɛstə /

noun

1. a hard protective outer layer of the seeds of flowering plants; seed coat

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testa Scientific  

/ tĕs′tə /

• testae
  plural

1. See seed coat

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• testae
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of testa

First recorded in 1790–1800; from New Latin, Latin; see test ²

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

testa testae

Cure is a mecca for carnivores; the shareable salumi plate alone comes with no fewer than 17 types of cold meats, including lamb culatello, coppa di testa and duck rillettes.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 16, 2015

The testa is far better than it sounds--like a fatty but delicately flavored sausage, topped with a little vinegar salad for bite.

From Time Magazine Archive

Three or four kidney-shaped seeds, the testa thin and crustaceous.

From The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by Jerome Beers Thomas

The French word tête, which means "head," comes from the Latin testa, "a pot."

From Stories That Words Tell Us by Elizabeth (Elizabeth Speakman) O'Neill

The pun testa ad testamentum cannot be reproduced in English. seaweed for an ague.

From The Apologia and Florida of Apuleius of Madaura by Harold Edgeworth Butler

I have looked at the seeds; I never saw in the British orchids nearly so many empty testae; but this goes for nothing, as unnatural conditions would account for it.

From More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 by Sir Francis Darwin

One point makes the above view more probable in Acropera than in other cases, viz. the presence of rudimentary placentae or testae, for I cannot hear that these have been observed in the male plants.

From More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 by Sir Francis Darwin

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