Word.ws English Dictionary

bacule

/ˈbækjuːl/

bacule is the alternative form of bascule.

Meaning of bascule

Noun

bascule (plural bascules)

  1. A counterbalanced structure having one end that rises as the other lowers.
    • In the late eighties and early nineties several new types of movable spans were advocated, including the pull-back draw, the jackknife span, the bob-tail swing, the horizontal-folding draw, the shearpole draw, the gyratory lift, the transbordeur, the double-cantilever swing, several types of...1932, Journal of the Association of Chinese & American Engineers, page 10
  2. The portion of a breech-loading firearm that pivots open in order to allow access to the chamber.
    • A device for coupling and releasing the trigger mechanism in a bascule of a gun1997, Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office

Noun

bacule (plural bacules)

  1. A rod-like element on the surface of some pollen.
    • Atyug (1971) pointed out that the pollen of S. compacta have prominent bacules. The present electron microscopic study, however reveals that those protuberences are spinules and not bacules.1998, Journal of Palynology, volume 34, numbers 1-4, page 5
    Synonyms:
    baculum, columella

Synonyms of bacule

Forms of bacule

pluralbacules

Origin of bacule

From French bacule, from Old French bacul, from Old French battre + cul, from Latin battuō (“beat”) + cul (“bottom”). Cognate with French bascule.

Borrowed from Latin baculum.

Questions about bacule

What does bacule mean?
Bacule means a rod-like element on the surface of some pollen.
What is bacule the alternative form of?
Bacule is the alternative form of bascule.
What part of speech is bacule?
Bacule is a noun.
How do you pronounce bacule?
Bacule is pronounced /ˈbækjuːl/.
What is the plural of bacule?
The plural of bacule is bacules.

Words near bacule in the dictionary

  1. bactritoids
  2. Bacuag
  3. bacula
  4. bacular
  5. baculate
  6. bacule
  7. bacules
  8. baculi
  9. baculicone
  10. baculicones
  11. baculiconic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bacule (page history and authors); bascule (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: “bacule.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bacule. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.