Alveolus

//ˌal.viˈəʊ.ləs// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A small cavity or pit.; Any of the many tiny air sacs in the lungs in which the bronchioles terminate and where oxygen and carbon dioxide are rapidly exchanged with the pulmonary capillaries.
  2. 2
    a bony socket in the alveolar ridge that holds a tooth wordnet
  3. 3
    A small cavity or pit.; The bony socket in which the root of a tooth resides.
  4. 4
    a tiny sac for holding air in the lungs; formed by the terminal dilation of tiny air passageways wordnet
  5. 5
    A small cavity or pit.; An acinus (saclike cavity) in a gland.

    "The sprouts proliferate and canalize to form the lactiferous ducts and the outbuddings form the alveoli of the mammary glands."

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  1. 6
    A small cavity or pit.; The socket of a macrotrichium (seta).

Synonyms

All synonyms
tooth socketair cellair sacalveolar ridgealveolar socketalveolation

Example

More examples

"The sprouts proliferate and canalize to form the lactiferous ducts and the outbuddings form the alveoli of the mammary glands."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin alveolus (“a small hollow or cavity”), diminutive of alveus (“a hollow, cavity”).

Related phrases

air saccarbon dioxidedental alveolustooth socket

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.