Word.ws English Dictionary

cryptostomy

cryptostomy noun: an adaptation in which the mouth is reduced to a slit and its location is concealed.

Noun

cryptostomy

  1. An adaptation in which the mouth is reduced to a slit and its location is concealed.
    • They are comparatively large, without outgrowths, of a rounded shape, with a flattened ventral surface and cryptostomy or plagiostomy with a lip.1991, Biology Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, page 279
    • The slit-like pseudostome is hidden by the dorsal lip and an extension of the ventral shell wall (cryptostomy).2000, John J. Lee, Gordon F. Leedale, Phyllis Clarke Bradbury, An illustrated guide to the protozoa

Origin of cryptostomy

From crypto- + stoma + -y.

Questions about cryptostomy

What does cryptostomy mean?
Cryptostomy means an adaptation in which the mouth is reduced to a slit and its location is concealed.
What part of speech is cryptostomy?
Cryptostomy is a noun.

Words near cryptostomy in the dictionary

  1. cryptosporopsin
  2. cryptostictic acid
  3. cryptostigmin
  4. cryptostome
  5. cryptostomes
  6. cryptostomy
  7. cryptosyringid
  8. cryptosyringids
  9. cryptosystem
  10. cryptosystems
  11. cryptotanshinone

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cryptostomy (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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