lamella

American  

[luh-mel-uh] / ləˈmɛl ə /

noun

plural

lamellae, lamellas

1. a thin plate, scale, membrane, or layer, as of bone, tissue, or cell walls.

2. Botany.

   1. an erect scale or blade inserted at the junction of the claw and limb in some corollas and forming a part of their corona or crown.

   2. (in mosses) a thin sheet of cells standing up along the midrib of a leaf.

3. Mycology. gill.

4. Building Trades. a member of wood, metal, or reinforced concrete, joined in a crisscross pattern with other lamellae to form a vault.

5. Ophthalmology. a small disk of gelatin and glycerin mixed with a medicinal substance, used as a medicament for the eyes.

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lamella British  

/ ˌlæməˈlɒsɪtɪ, -lɪt, -lɪt, ləˈmɛləʊs, ˈlæmɪˌleɪt, ˈlæmɪˌləʊs, ləˈmɛlə, ləˈmɛleɪt /

noun

1. a thin layer, plate, or membrane, esp any of the calcified layers of which bone is formed

2. botany

   1. any of the spore-bearing gills of a mushroom

   2. any of the membranes in a chloroplast

   3. Also called: middle lamella.  a layer of pectin cementing together adjacent cells

3. one of a number of timber, metal, or concrete members connected along a pattern of intersecting diagonal lines to form a framed vaulted roof structure

4. any thin sheet of material or thin layer in a fluid

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Other Word Forms

• lamellar adjective
• lamellarly adverb
• lamellated adjective
• lamellation noun
• lamellosity noun

Etymology

Origin of lamella

1670–80; < Latin lāmella, diminutive of lāmina lame ²

Example Sentences

Its design, by Barcelona-based firm Barozzi Veiga, features a brick lamella facade that calls to mind an old radiator.

From New York Times • Jul. 10, 2023

Gills or branchiae may be developed by parts of an appendage becoming thin-walled and vascular and either expanded into a thin lamella or ramified.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 7 "Crocoite" to "Cuba" by Various

They are the principal constituents of "woody fiber," of cell-walls, and of the "middle lamella" which fills up the spaces between the plant cells.

From The Chemistry of Plant Life by Thatcher, Roscoe Wilfred

The hyphae will also dissolve their way through a lamella of collodion, paraffin, parchment paper, elder-pith, or even cork or the wing of a fly, to do which it must excrete very different enzymes.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 3 "Frost" to "Fyzabad" by Various

If a thin cellulose membrane is interposed between the lamellae, the hyphae nevertheless turn chemotropically from the one lamella to the other and pierce the cellulose membrane in the process.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 3 "Frost" to "Fyzabad" by Various

Related Words

• layer
• slab
• slice