Word.ws English Dictionary

atheroid

atheroid adjective: shaped like an ear of grain.

Adjective (1)

atheroid (comparative more atheroid, superlative most atheroid)

  1. Shaped like an ear of grain.
    • This genus occurs from the Silurian to the close of the Paleozoic, and is common from the middle Devonian up; it is characterized by its concavo-convex form, and the spines along the hinge-line; aa, Seminula argentea (Shep.), a spire-bearing, atheroid shell, one of the commonest Carbonifersous...1905, Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, Rollin D. Salisbury, Geology - Volume 2, page 617
    • It has been shown by Hyde, however, that these shells are spire-bearing with a brachidium of atheroid type.1914, Stuart Weller, The Mississippian Brachiopoda of the Mississippi Valley Basin, page 458

Adjective (2)

atheroid (comparative more atheroid, superlative most atheroid)

  1. Characterized by writhing and twisting.
    • Hands, in this case also, are subject to atrophy of groups of the intrinisc muscles, and exhibit the atheroid movements of the fingers when lying unused, and the "claw-like" configuration when about to pick up an object.1895, M. J. Nolan, “Three Cases of Friedreich's Disease (Hereditary Ataxy) Associated with Genetous Idiocy”, in Transactions of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, page 75
    • Automatic movements, such as sucking and tooth-grinding, and atheroid movements of the limbs, are not uncommon.1940, William Siegfried Dawson, Aids to Psychiatry, page 181

Adjective (3)

atheroid (comparative more atheroid, superlative most atheroid)

  1. From or similar to an atheroma (any sense).
    • The atheroid plaque in the diabetic subject contains more cholesterol ester and phospholipid, but less neutral fat, than that of the non-diabetic individual.1958 September 27, “The Medical Journal of Australia”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 89, page 431
    • The cysts contain yellow atheroid material, which is composed of keratinized material and cholesterol clefts [28].2017 June 28, Pardeep K. Mittal, Peter Harri, Sadhna Nandwana, Courtney C. Moreno, Takashi Muraki, Volkan Adsay, Kelly Cox, Burcin Pehlivanoglu, Lauren F. Alexander, Argha Chatterjee & Frank H....

Examples of atheroid in a sentence

  • I couldn't in my wildest imagination imagine severely handicapped, atheroid people packing fish hooks.1974, Proceedings of National Conference on Housing and the Handicapped, page 9:
  • Hearing loss, common in atheroid cerebral palsy, may profoundly affect speech and communication if not recognised early and compensated for.1983, Edward M. Brett, Paediatric Neurology, page 247:

Forms of atheroid

comparativemore atheroid
superlativemost atheroid

Origin of atheroid

Ancient Greek ἀθήρ (athḗr, “beard or ear of grain”) + -oid.

From Ancient Greek ἄθετος (áthetos, “not fixed”), itself from τίθημι (títhēmi) + -oid

atheroma + -oid

Questions about atheroid

What does atheroid mean?
Atheroid means shaped like an ear of grain.
How do you use atheroid in a sentence?
I couldn't in my wildest imagination imagine severely handicapped, atheroid people packing fish hooks.
What part of speech is atheroid?
Atheroid is an adjective.

Words near atheroid in the dictionary

  1. atherogeneses
  2. atherogenesis
  3. atherogenetic
  4. atherogenic
  5. atherogenicity
  6. atheroid
  7. atheroma
  8. atheromas
  9. atheromasia
  10. atheromata
  11. atheromatic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: atheroid (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “atheroid.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/atheroid. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.