Malleus
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The small hammer-shaped bone of the middle ear.
"A fracture of the malleus handle is a rare traumatic middle ear lesion."
- 2 the ossicle attached to the eardrum wordnet
- 3 The tripus (ossicle in cypriniform fishes).
- 4 One of the paired calcareous structures within the mastax of rotifers.
"[…] in the typical mastax of a Brachionus there are two hammer-like bodies (mallei), which work on a kind of split anvil (incus); […] each malleus consists of an upper part or head (uncus) and a lower or handle (manubrium);"
Example
More examples"The hermit maintained and bucklered his opinion, by quotations from Malleus Malificarum, Sprengerus, Remigius, and other learned demonologists, that the Evil One, thus seduced to remain behind the appointed hour, would assume her true shape, and, having appeared to her terrified lover as a fiend of hell, would vanish from him in a flash of sulphurous lightning."
Etymology
From Latin malleus (“hammer, mallet”). Doublet of maul.
Related phrases
More for "malleus"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.