Raphe

//ˈɹeɪ.fi// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A seamlike ridge or furrow on an organ, bodily tissue, or other structure, typically marking the line where two halves or sections fused in the embryo.

    "They are inserted into the midline raphae or the anococcygeal raphae and the coccyx."

  2. 2
    a ridge that forms a seam between two parts wordnet
  3. 3
    A seamlike ridge or furrow on an organ, bodily tissue, or other structure, typically marking the line where two halves or sections fused in the embryo.; The connecting ridge between the two halves of the medulla oblongata or the tegmentum of the midbrain.
  4. 4
    The part of the stalk of an anatropous ovary that is united in growth to the outside covering and forms a ridge along the body of the ovule.

    "The vast majority of the raphes do not bifurcate (123 genera), but the raphes of 7 genera do."

  5. 5
    A longitudinal median groove in the valve of many diatoms.

    "The invariant occurrence of adhesive EPS at both the driving and the non-driving raphes supports a model for constitutive, rather than induced, secretion of the raphe adhesive."

Synonyms

All synonyms

Example

More examples

"They are inserted into the midline raphae or the anococcygeal raphae and the coccyx."

Etymology

Borrowed from New Latin raphē, from Ancient Greek ῥᾰφή (rhăphḗ, “seam; suture”).

Related phrases

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