alveolusn.
/ˌalvɪˈəʊləs/, /alˈvɪələs/, /ˈalvɪələs/, U.S. /ælˈviələs/, /ˌælviˈoʊləs/ 1. Anatomy and Zoology. The cavity in a jawbone in which the root of a tooth is contained; a tooth socket.
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the world > life > the body > digestive or excretive organs > digestive organs > mouth > substance or parts of teeth > [noun] > socket
socket1601
alveolus1657
tooth-sac1890
1615 H. Crooke Μικροκοσμογραϕια xiii. xii. 958 In the circumference or margent of both the Iawes,..we meete with certaine cauities or hollow places which the Latines call Alueoli or Locelli.]
1657 N. Culpeper & W. Rand tr. J. Riolan Sure Guide iv. viii. 202 They are immovably fastened in their Holes called Alveoli [L. Alveoli], by that kind of Articulation which is termed Gomphosis.
1697 R. Baker Cursus Osteologicus 54 Parts to be consider'd in these Bones, are first, many deep Cavities which are in their lower edge, call'd Alveoli, or Sockets, in which the Teeth are fastned.
1726 A. Monro Anat. Humane Bones 144 The common Hole is that which appears at the internal posterior Part of the Tuberosity and Alveoli of the Teeth.
1799 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 89 229 The alveoli or sockets of the two grinders.
1831 R. Knox tr. H. Cloquet Syst. Human Anat. (ed. 2) 75 The Teeth..are small bones..implanted in the alveoli of both jaws.
1881 St. G. Mivart Cat 27 Each alveolus closely invests the fang contained within it.
1932 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 71 265 Above the alveolus, the quadricuspidate crown leans posteriorly and lingually.
1968 Anat. Rec. 162 313/1 Black..defined the peridental ligament as the tissue which intervenes between the root of the tooth and the bony walls of the alveolus.
2006 K. D. Rose Beginning Age Mammals ii. 27/2 Teeth are implanted in the alveoli (sockets) of the jaw by the root(s).
2. Each of the cells in a bee's or wasp's nest; each of the hexagonal compartments in a honeycomb.
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the world > food and drink > food > additive > sweetener > honey > [noun] > honeycomb > cell of
alveolus1744
bee-cell1868
1744 tr. G. A. Bazin Nat. Hist. Bees vi. 107 I will not, at this time, describe to you, the manner, in which the Bees build their cells or alveoli [Fr. alvéoles].
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. Alveoli, waxen cells in the combs of bees..The alveoli are all of a hexagonal figure.
1831 H. McMurtrie tr. P. A. Latreille in G. Cuvier Animal Kingdom IV. 167 The labourers, which are alone charged with the work, form those laminæ composed of two opposing rows of hexagonal alveoli with a pyramidal base of three rhombs.
1918 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 39 231 The base of each new alveolus is much narrower than the top of a completed cell; the cell is built farther and gradually widened at the top as the growth of the larva progresses.
1995 C. de Duve Vital Dust xxii. 204 Should our eyes be able to follow what happens inside a larva deposited in a beehive alveolus, we would not pay another second's attention to the construction of the housing itself.
3. Palaeontology. In early use: the fossilized phragmocone of a belemnite. In later use: the conical chamber which, in many belemnites, lies at the anterior end of the guard or rostrum and encloses the apex of the phragmocone.
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the world > life > biology > organism > fossil > [noun] > particular parts of
ostracite1601
horse-head1708
nucleus1734
orthoceras1734
orthoceratite1734
alveolus1747
volutite1802
strombite1811
helicite1828
turbinite1828
phragmocone1843
pro-ostracum1864
orthoceratoid1885
nema1901
1747 E. M. da Costa in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 44 398 This conic Cavity is..filled with a regular jointed conic Body, called by Lithologists the Alveolus of the Belemnites.
1843 R. Owen Lect. Compar. Anat. Invertebr. Animals 333 The chambered cone itself..is lodged in a conical cavity or alveolus. [Note] The term alveolus has been given improperly to the contents of the socket, viz. to the ‘phragmocone’.
1860 Geologist Oct. 357 Ehrhart [(1724)]..perceived the affinity between the alveolus and the body of the belemnite.
1946 H. Woods Palæontol. Invertebr. (ed. 8) 343 (heading) Belemnitella. Guard cylindrical, with a slit at the under side of the alveolus.
1961 J. Stubblefield Davies's Introd. Palaeontol. (ed. 3) ix. 222 Graphularia (Eoc., London Clay), a rod-like body, with some resemblance to a belemnite-guard but without the alveolus of the latter, is the axis of an alcyonarian colony.
2007 Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol. 252 467/2 The dorso-ventral and lateral diameters of each specimen were measured at the base of the alveolus.
4. Botany. On the surface of the receptacle of a composite flower: a shallow, walled compartment resembling a cell of a honeycomb, containing an individual floret. Cf. alveolate adj.
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the world > plants > part of plant > part defined by form or function > [noun] > compartment or cavity
loculus1694
compartment1772
alveolus1800
1800 J. Hull Elements Bot. I. 125 These sockets (alveoli) often cannot be discerned without a magnifying glass.
1837 W. Darlington Flora Cestrica (ed. 2) 462 Receptacle alveolate, the alveoli with dentate margins.
1874 M. M. Hartog tr. H. Baillon Nat. Hist. Plants III. 77 The receptacle expands into a large inverted cone.., whose upturned base is hollowed into a variable number of alveoli.
1906 Mem. Torrey Bot. Club 13 106 Each alveolus rises in its center into a hollow conical tubercle or foveolus on which the achene stands.
1979 Systematic Bot. 4 186 The receptacle flat,..shallowly alveolate, the ridges between the alveoli minutely pubescent with hook-tipped, glandular-based trichomes.
2007 J. W. Kadereit & C. Jeffrey in K. Kubitzki Families & Genera Vascular Plants VIII. 121/2 Receptacle epaleaceous, moderately to deeply alveolate,..margins of alveoli toothed, at least at angles.
5. Anatomy and Zoology. A small polygonal depression on the surface of a mucous membrane, esp. of the stomach. Cf. honeycomb n. 5.
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the world > life > the body > digestive or excretive organs > digestive organs > stomach or belly > [noun] > depression
alveolus1828
1828 S. D. Gross tr. A. L. J. Bayle & H. Hollard Man. Gen. Anat. viii. 208 Besides these follicles, there are others, which..are very well developed in the second stomach of ruminating animals, where they constitute the large cells and alveoli [Fr. alvéoles] of the mucous membrane.
1848 Quain's Elements Anat. (ed. 5) II. 1025 The gastric mucous membrane..is seen to be marked..with little depressions or cells, named alveoli.
1912 Ann. Surg. 55 244 The gall-bladder mucosa presents numerous alveoli formed by fibromuscular bands.
1980 Gray's Anat. (ed. 36) 1336/2 The luminal surface of the mucous membrane [of the stomach]..has a honeycomb appearance, because it is covered with small depressions or alveoli.
6. Anatomy and Zoology. Any of the small, thin-walled sacs in which the air passages of the lung terminate, and through the walls of which respiratory gas exchange occurs. Also called air cell, air sac.
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the world > life > the body > respiratory organs > [noun] > lungs > air-cell of
air bladder1693
alveolus1848
1848 Half-yearly Abstr. Med. Sci. 6 282 The interior lesser cavities he [sc. Rossignol] names ‘alveoli’, in allusion to their resemblance to the cells of the honeycomb.
1859 Proc. Royal Soc. 10 17 Structure..of the human lung... Here and there circular orifices exist, leading to smaller air-sacs, sometimes only to a small group of ‘air-cells’, or alveoli.
1873 T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. & Morbid Anat. (ed. 2) xxxvii. 295 Minute spots of a more decidedly yellow colour..which are very common in capillary bronchitis, are merely alveoli containing mucus and purulent matter which has been drawn in by the act of inspiration.
1909 Practitioner Dec. 859 The alveoli themselves are distended with a mixture of gases.
1987 Nursing Jan. 480/1 Without surfactant, the alveoli collapse at the end of expiration, leading to impaired exchange of gases.
2002 Here's Health Mar. 20/1 The bronchi divide into thousands of smaller airways called bronchioles, which lead to the alveoli—300 million tiny air sacs that occupy the lungs.
7. Anatomy and Zoology. An acinus of an exocrine gland.
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the world > life > the body > secretory organs > gland > [noun] > parts of gland
acinus1702
alveolus1872
1872 H. Power tr. E. F. W. Pflüger in Stricker's Man. Histol. II. xiv. 296 The largest epithelia of this kind with which I am acquainted I have found in certain alveoli of the salivary glands of the Ox.
1920 Gray's Anat. (ed. 21) 1087 Each lobule [in compound racemose glands] consists of the ramification of a single duct, the branches ending in dilated ends or alveoli.
1986 A. S. Romer & T. S. Parsons Vertebr. Body (ed. 6) iv. 105 The secretory areas may take the shape of tubules or of rounded pockets (alveoli or acini) and may be simple or subdivided.
2006 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 103 16718/1 After this treatment procedure, more extensive mammary ductal branching and a greater number of mammary alveoli were observed.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2012; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1657