Epiglottis

//ˌɛp.ɪˈɡlɒt.ɪs// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A cartilaginous organ in the throat of terrestrial vertebrates covering the glottis when swallowing to prevent food and liquid from entering the trachea, and in Homo sapiens also a speech organ.

    "My epiglottis is full of bees!"

  2. 2
    a flap of cartilage that covers the windpipe while swallowing wordnet

Etymology

Borrowed from New Latin epiglōttis, from Ancient Greek ἐπῐγλωττῐ́ς (epĭglōttĭ́s, “valve covering the larynx”), from ἐπῐ- (epĭ-, “upon, over”) + γλωττῐ́ς (glōttĭ́s, “glottis, mouth of the windpipe”); equivalent to epi- (“upon; above”) + glottis.

Related phrases

homo sapiensspeech organ

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