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trabecula

[truh-bek-yuh-luh]
noun, plural tra·bec·u·lae [truh-bek-yuh-lee] /trəˈbɛk yəˌli/.
  1. Anatomy, Botany. a structural part resembling a small beam or crossbar.
  2. Botany. one of the projections from the cell wall that extends across the cavity of the ducts of certain plants, or the plate of cells across the cavity of the sporangium of a moss.
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Origin of trabecula

1815–25; < New Latin trabēcula, Latin: little beam, equivalent to trabē(s) beam + -cula -cule1
Related formstra·bec·u·lar, tra·bec·u·late [truh-bek-yuh-lit, -leyt] /trəˈbɛk yə lɪt, -ˌleɪt/, adjectivein·ter·tra·bec·u·lar, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for trabecular

Historical Examples of trabecular

  • The trabecular floor of the brain does not long remain simple.

    The Origin of Vertebrates

    Walter Holbrook Gaskell

  • There are also less obvious changes in the density of the shadow and in the arrangement of the trabecular structure of the bones.

  • The term caries is employed to indicate any diseased process associated with crumbling away of the trabecular framework of a bone.

    Manual of Surgery

    Alexis Thomson and Alexander Miles

British Dictionary definitions for trabecular

trabecula

noun plural -lae (-ˌliː) anatomy botany
  1. any of various rod-shaped structures that divide organs into separate chambers
  2. any of various rod-shaped cells or structures that bridge a cavity, as within the capsule of a moss or across the lumen of a cell
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Derived Formstrabecular or trabeculate, adjective

Word Origin for trabecula

C19: via New Latin from Latin: a little beam, from trabs a beam
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
trabecular in Medicine

trabecula

(trə-bĕk′yə-lə)
n. pl. tra•bec•u•lae (-lē′)
  1. Any of the supporting strands of connective tissue projecting into an organ and constituting part of the framework of that organ.
  2. Any of the fine spicules forming a network in cancellous bone.
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Related formstra•bec′u•lar adj.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.