Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

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 Charles Darwin

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 ?douard Cuyer

Unguif′erous, bearing an unguis of one kind or other; Ung′uiform, shaped like a claw; Ung′uinal, pertaining to the unguis or nail; Unguiros′tral, with a nail at the end of the bill.—ns.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

In Bignonia unguis and its close allies, the petioles of the leaves, as well as the tendrils, are sensitive to a touch.

From The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants by Charles Darwin

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

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 Charles Hoole

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 Gene Stratton-Porter

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 Horatio Robert Forbes Brown

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word


Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Look it up. Learn it forever.

Remember new words for good with VocabTrainer. Expand your vocabulary effortlessly with personalized learning tools that adapt to your goals.

Take me to Vocabulary.com