Word.ws English Dictionary

ephippium

ephippium noun: a depression in the sphenoid bone; the pituitary fossa.

Noun

ephippium (plural ephippia)

  1. A depression in the sphenoid bone; the pituitary fossa.
  2. A saddle-shaped cavity or pouch to contain the winter eggs, situated on the back of water fleas (Diplostraca spp.; Cladocera spp.)

Forms of ephippium

pluralephippia

Origin of ephippium

From Latin ephippium (“saddlecloth”), from Ancient Greek ἐφίππιον (ephíppion), from ἐπῐ́ (epĭ́) + ἵππος (híppos, “horse”).

Words formed from ephippium

Questions about ephippium

What does ephippium mean?
Ephippium means a depression in the sphenoid bone; the pituitary fossa.
What part of speech is ephippium?
Ephippium is a noun.
What is the plural of ephippium?
The plural of ephippium is ephippia.

Words near ephippium in the dictionary

  1. Ephigenia
  2. ephippia
  3. ephippial
  4. ephippid
  5. ephippids
  6. ephippium
  7. ephod
  8. ephods
  9. ephor
  10. ephoral
  11. ephoralties

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ephippium (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: “ephippium.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ephippium. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.