lanceolate

American  

[lan-see-uh-leyt, -lit] / ˈlæn si əˌleɪt, -lɪt /

adjective

1. shaped like the head of a lance.

2. narrow, and tapering toward the apex or sometimes at the base, as a leaf.

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lanceolate British  

/ -lɪt, ˈlɑːnsɪəˌleɪt /

adjective

1. narrow and tapering to a point at each end

   lanceolate leaves

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lanceolate Scientific  

/ lăn′sē-ə-lāt′ /

1. Tapering from a rounded base toward an apex; lance-shaped. Many willows have lanceolate leaves.

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Other Word Forms

• lanceolately adverb
• sublanceolate adjective

Etymology

Origin of lanceolate

1750–60; < Latin lanceolātus armed with a small lance, equivalent to lanceol ( a ) small lance ( lance ( a ) lance ¹ + -ola -ole ¹ ) + -ātus -ate ¹

Example Sentences

The ears are far narrower than those of living rhinos – they’ve even been described as lanceolate in form.

From Scientific American • Nov. 9, 2013

Scape 1–2° high; leaves linear to lanceolate, entire to dentate or laciniate; head often pubescent or villous; achene long-beaked.—Minn. to Neb. and southwestward.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Diffusely branched, about 1° high, leaves oblong to lanceolate, racemes lax, loosely paniculate; flowers small; nutlets of the globular-pyramidal fruit only marginally glochidiate.—Iowa,

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Slender, strict and simple, with few or several racemose or terminal heads, like those of the last; leaves lanceolate or linear, the lower usually long and narrow.—S. W. Va., and southward.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Leaves lanceolate; calyx 4-parted; petals 4, greenish-yellow; the upper one 3–5-cleft, the two lateral 3-cleft, the lower one linear and entire; capsule depressed.—Roadsides,

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa