turbinate

American  

[tur-buh-nit, -nayt] / ˈtɜr bə nɪt, -ˌneɪt /

adjective

1. Also turbinated. having the shape of an inverted cone; scroll-like; whorled; spiraled.

2. Anatomy. of or relating to certain scroll-like, spongy bones of the nasal passages in humans and other vertebrates.

3. inversely conical.

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noun

1. a turbinate shell.

2. Also called nasal concha. Anatomy. a turbinate bone.

turbinate British  

/ ˈtɜːbɪnɪt, -ˌneɪt /

adjective

1. anatomy of or relating to any of the thin scroll-shaped bones situated on the walls of the nasal passages

2. shaped like a spiral or scroll

3. (esp of the shells of certain molluscs) shaped like an inverted cone

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noun

1. Also called: nasal concha. a turbinate bone

2. a turbinate shell

Other Word Forms

• turbination
  noun
• nonturbinate
  adjective
• nonturbinated
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of turbinate

1655–65; < Latin turbinātus shaped like a top, equivalent to turbin- (stem of turbō a top; see turbine) + -ātus -ate ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

turbinate

Researchers also identified signs of a structure known as a respiratory turbinate inside the nose of Triceratops.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 22, 2026

Achenes turbinate, 5-angled; pappus of several chaffy scales.

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 Asa Gray

P. globose then convex, dry, satiny, white, soon tinged yellow or reddish-yellow; g. broad, brown; stem with a turbinate bulb, white, suffused with reddish-yellow; flesh white, ring fugacious; sp.

From European Fungus Flora: Agaricaceae by George Massee

The following are a few of the best figs; those marked F, are good forcing sorts, and those marked W. suitable for walls:— Agen: brownish-green, turbinate.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 3 "Fenton, Edward" to "Finistere" by Various

A large handsome species recognizable by the peculiar turbinate sporangium, with its iridescent peridial wall in which green strongly predominates above, bronze below.

From The North American Slime-Moulds A Descriptive List of All Species of Myxomycetes Hitherto Reported from the Continent of North America, with Notes on Some Extra-Limital Species by Thomas H. (Thomas Huston) MacBride

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