umbilicus
Americannoun
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Anatomy. the depression in the center of the surface of the abdomen indicating the point of attachment of the umbilical cord to the embryo; navel.
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Botany, Zoology. a navellike formation, as the hilum of a seed.
noun
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biology a hollow or navel-like structure, such as the cavity at the base of a gastropod shell
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anatomy a technical name for the navel
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of umbilicus
1605–15; < Latin umbilīcus navel, middle, center; see navel
Explanation
Your umbilicus is your bellybutton. It's the place on your stomach where your umbilical cord was attached before you were born. Just call it a bellybutton or navel unless you're a fancy medical writer. Umbilicus is the official anatomical term for your navel or bellybutton. Most people don't give much thought to their umbilicus, which is really a scar marking the spot where a cord once connected to your source of nutrients when you were a fetus in your mother's body. After babies are born, this cord is cut, and the result is an umbilicus. In Latin, the word means both "navel" and "the center."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When one falls in love with a patient who is a famous actor, the umbilicus that had sustained them all their lives is pierced for the first time.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 21, 2023
It was his and his alone, an incandescent umbilicus connecting this seven-year-old boy to the firmament.
From The Verge • Jun. 25, 2018
The surgeons began by making incisions above the umbilicus and beneath the left and right sides of the rib cage.
From The New Yorker • Sep. 19, 2016
The small skiffs, each provisioned with gas, net, cooler, and life jackets, form a bobbing line against the early dawn sky, an umbilicus connecting our ship to the sea.
From Scientific American • Oct. 30, 2015
There was, for instance, a scarcity of hope on Middlesex, where his wife no longer felt any stirrings in her spiritual umbilicus.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
