orbicular
Americanadjective
adjective
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circular or spherical
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(of a leaf or similar flat part) circular or nearly circular
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rare rounded or total
Other Word Forms
- orbicularity noun
- orbicularly adverb
- orbicularness noun
- suborbicular adjective
- suborbicularity noun
- suborbicularly adverb
Etymology
Origin of orbicular
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English orbiculer, from Old French orbiculaire and Late Latin orbiculāris “circular, spherical,” equivalent to Latin orbi(s) “disk” + -cul(us) diminutive suffix + -āris; orb, -cule 1, -ar 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She needs to squeeze them tighter to demonstrate the strength she has in the orbicular oculi.
From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013
Product of a two-year study directed by Brookings' president, orbicular Harold Glenn Moulton, it broke no new argumentative ground, offered no new documentation for economists.
From Time Magazine Archive
“Well, will you look at that,” Aarfy marveled sonorously right beside Yossarian, his plump, orbicular face sparkling with a look of bright enchantment.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Embryo straight! or the short radicle only slightly bent in the direction which if continued would make the orbicular cotyledons accumbent.—Little winter annuals, glabrous and often stemless, with lyrate leaves and short 1–few-flowered scape-like peduncles.
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
A. calycìnum, L., a dwarf hoary annual, with linear-spatulate leaves, pale yellow or whitish petals little exceeding the persistent calyx, and orbicular sharp margined 4-seeded pod, the style minute, occurs occasionally in grassland.
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
