ACETABULUM • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Acetabulum

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noun

Acetabulum n.

(Rom. Antiq.) A vinegar cup; socket of the hip bone; a measure of about one eighth of a pint, etc.

(Anat.)

(a)

The bony cup which receives the head of the thigh bone.

(b)

The cavity in which the leg of an insect is inserted at its articulation with the body.

(c)

A sucker of the sepia or cuttlefish and related animals.

(d)

The large posterior sucker of the leeches.

(e)

One of the lobes of the placenta in ruminating animals.

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Etymology of 'Acetabulum'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Acetabulum" Quotes from Famous Books

... longest bone in the system. It supports the weight of the head, trunk, and upper extremities. The large, round head of this bone is placed in the acetabulum. This articulation is a perfect specimen of the ball and ...

— A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene (Revised Edition) • Calvin Cutter

... distinct group of the mammals, and one of the most remarkable peculiarities in existing dugong and lamentin is the entire absence of hind limbs, without even a rudiment being left; but the extinct Halitherium had, according to Professor Flower, an ossified thigh-bone "articulated to a well-defined acetabulum in the pelvis," and it thus makes some approach to ordinary hoofed quadrupeds, to which the Sirenia are in other respects allied. The cetaceans or whales are widely different from all other mammals, but the tertiary Zeuglodon and Squalodon, which have been placed by some naturalists ...

— On the Origin of Species - 6th Edition • Charles Darwin

Words linked to "Acetabulum" : innominate bone, acetabular, socket, hipbone