Dictionary

meatus en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /miˈeɪˌtus/ (General-American)
• /miˈeɪ.təs/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
• /miˈeɪ.təs/ (General-American)
• (General-American) audio

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin meātus (“a going, passing; a way, path, passage”).

Meanings

1. A tubular opening or passage leading to the interior of the body.
   • The vibrissae are coarse hairs whose follicles are located just within the nasal meatus. 2012, David W. Kennedy, Peter H. Hwang, editors, Rhinology: Diseases of the Nose, Sinuses, and Skull Base, Thieme, →ISBN:
   • The urinary meatus is the opening of the urethra, situated on the glans penis in males, and in the vulva in females.
   • The illness. It came out of nowhere. His breathing all of a sudden started hurting the back of his throat. Then that overfull heat in various cranial meatus. 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 60:
2. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis) Ellipsis of acoustic meatus, the passage leading into the ear.
   alt of acoustic meatus

Forms

Deriveds

urethral meatus · meatal · permeate · meatic · auditory meatus · meato- · pseudomeatus

Relateds

foramen · ear canal

Synonyms

ear canal

Translations (11)

pl ujście przewodu (tubular opening) · fi aukko (tubular opening) · fr méat (tubular opening) · af buis (tubular opening) · es meato (tubular opening) · fi meatus (tubular opening) · pt meato (tubular opening) · it meato (tubular opening) · cmn 道 (tubular opening) · cmn 口 (tubular opening) · de Gang (tubular opening)