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unguis

American  
[uhng-gwis] / ˈʌŋ gwɪs /

noun

ungues plural
  1. a nail, claw, or hoof.

  2. Botany. the clawlike base of certain petals.


unguis British  
/ ˈʌŋɡwɪs /

noun

  1. a nail, claw, or hoof, or the part of the digit giving rise to it

  2. the clawlike base of certain petals

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of unguis

1685–95; < Latin unguis a nail, claw, hoof; akin to Greek ónyx

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.

See Examples For:

Secondly and thirdly, Bignonia unguis with its close allies, and Cardiospermum; but their tendrils are so short that their contraction could hardly occur, and would be quite superfluous.

From The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants by Darwin, Charles

The malar bone, and the os unguis or lachrymal, are more or less developed according to the species considered.

From Artistic Anatomy of Animals by Cuyer, ?douard

In the horse it arises, by a small tendon, from a tubercle which occupies the external surface of the os unguis, or lachrymal bone.

From Artistic Anatomy of Animals by Cuyer, ?douard

Another horn, probably that of an ibex, is in the same institution, and has a silver mount inscribed “Gryphi unguis divo Cuthberto dunelmensi sacer.”

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 7 "Drama" to "Dublin" by Various

Besides the plants already described, Bignonia unguis and its close allies, though aided by tendrils, have clasping petioles.

From The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants by Darwin, Charles

Bestiæ habent acutos ungues, & dentes, suntque carnivoræ,  As the Lyon, 1. the King of four-footed Beasts, having a mane; with the Lioness.

From The Orbis Pictus by Hoole, Charles

From them we learn that it requires a coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia, tarsus, ungues, pulvillus, and anterior, medial and posterior spurs to provide a leg for a moth.

From Moths of the Limberlost by Stratton-Porter, Gene

Myodocopa.—These have the furcal branches broad, lamellar, with at least three pairs of strong spines or ungues.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 6 "English Language" to "Epsom Salts" by Various

As there are few difficulties to overcome, it suffers from a fatal facility—nec pluteum coedit nec demorsos sapit ungues.

From Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, First Series by Brown, Horatio Robert Forbes

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