Osculum
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A small opening or orifice.
- 2 One of the suckers on the head of a tapeworm. obsolete
- 3 The main opening in a sponge from which water is expelled.
"I left them in that condition, and at 7 o'clock examined them again, when I found them still quiescent; but one of the two large groups of oscula and the new one were entirely closed, while the other osculum at the largest end of the sponge had opened to the extent of about one-third of its diameter, and the membrane presented the appearance of a series of lines or corrugations radiating from the centre to the circumference."
Example
More examples"I left them in that condition, and at 7 o'clock examined them again, when I found them still quiescent; but one of the two large groups of oscula and the new one were entirely closed, while the other osculum at the largest end of the sponge had opened to the extent of about one-third of its diameter, and the membrane presented the appearance of a series of lines or corrugations radiating from the centre to the circumference."
Etymology
From Latin ōsculum (“little mouth”).
Related phrases
More for "osculum"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.