Standard Lemma guide

carpel

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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  • /ˈkɑː(ɹ)pəl/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɑː(ɹ)pəl
  • homophone: carpal

1

noun

Meaning 1

A constituent part of a flower pistil: the female reproductive organs in a flower. A carpel is composed of an ovary, a style, and a stigma, although some flowers have carpels without a distinct style. In origin, carpels are leaves (megasporophylls) that have evolved to enclose the ovules. A pistil may be composed of a single carpel or of several carpels fused together.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: biology, botany, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a simple pistil or one element of a compound pistil

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: pistil

Narrower terms: mericarp

History

Etymology

1835, borrowed from French carpelle, from New Latin carpellum, a diminutive of Ancient Greek κᾰρπός (kărpós, “fruit”), from Proto-Indo-European *kerp- (“to pluck, harvest”).

Across languages

Translations

16 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: carpel — structural unit of a pistil
  • Chinese Mandarin: 心皮 (xīnpí) — structural unit of a pistil
  • Czech: pestík — structural unit of a pistil
  • Dutch: vruchtblad — structural unit of a pistil
  • Finnish: emilehti — structural unit of a pistil
  • French: carpelle — structural unit of a pistil
  • Greek: καρπόφυλλο (karpófyllo) — structural unit of a pistil
  • Hungarian: termőlevél — structural unit of a pistil
  • Italian: carpello — structural unit of a pistil
  • Japanese: 心皮 (shinpi) — structural unit of a pistil
  • Macedonian: оплодно ливче (oplodno livče) — structural unit of a pistil
  • Polish: owocolistek — structural unit of a pistil
  • Portuguese: carpelo — structural unit of a pistil
  • Romanian: carpelă — structural unit of a pistil
  • Russian: плодоли́стик (plodolístik) — structural unit of a pistil
  • Spanish: carpelo — structural unit of a pistil