Proventriculus
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The part of the avian stomach, between the crop and the gizzard, that secretes digestive enzymes.
"In fulmars, the proventriculus is very baggy, and has thick wrinkled walls lined with glands that excrete the waxy oil which courting birds pass to one another in small amounts, perhaps as a way of scent-marking their mate."
- 2 A similar part of the digestive system in insects and myriapods.
Example
More examples"In fulmars, the proventriculus is very baggy, and has thick wrinkled walls lined with glands that excrete the waxy oil which courting birds pass to one another in small amounts, perhaps as a way of scent-marking their mate."
Etymology
From New Latin proventriculus (19th century), from pro- + ventriculus.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.