Standard Lemma guide
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.
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noun
An organ in most mammals during gestation that supplies food and oxygen to the foetus and passes back waste. It is on the wall of the uterus and links to the foetus through the umbilical cord. It is expelled after birth.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: anatomy, medicine, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: afterbirth, clean, glean
Antonyms: none provided
noun
In flowering plants, the part of the ovary where ovules develop; in non-flowering plants where the spores develop.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: biology, botany, natural-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: trophosperm
Antonyms: none provided
noun
the vascular structure in the uterus of most mammals providing oxygen and nutrients for and transferring wastes from the developing fetus
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: vascular structure
Narrower terms: afterbirth
noun
that part of the ovary of a flowering plant where the ovules form
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: reproductive structure
History
Elision for phrases such as New Latin placenta uterī (“womb cake”), placenta uterina (“uterine cake”), from Latin placenta (“flat cake”), because of the flat round shape of the afterbirth.
Across languages
117 source translations are retained for this English entry.
