Word.ws English Dictionary

nictating membrane

nictating membrane is the alternative form of nictitating membrane.

Meaning of nictitating membrane

Noun

nictitating membrane (plural nictitating membranes)

  1. A transparent protective fold of skin acting as an inner eyelid in birds, reptiles and some mammals.
    • As the wildebeest shrinks, the circle of sated birds lounging in the short grass expands. With bulging crops, the vultures settle their heads atop folded wings and slide their nictitating membranes shut.2015, Elizabeth Royte, Vultures Are Revolting. Here’s Why We Need to Save Them., National Geographic (December 2015)https://web.archive.org/web/20151213095110/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01...
    Synonyms:
    winker

Forms of nictating membrane

pluralnictating membranes

Questions about nictating membrane

What is nictating membrane the alternative form of?
Nictating membrane is the alternative form of nictitating membrane.

Words near nictating membrane in the dictionary

  1. NICs
  2. nictate
  3. nictated
  4. nictates
  5. nictating
  6. nictating membrane
  7. nictating membranes
  8. nictation
  9. nictations
  10. nictemeral
  11. nictiazem

Source and license

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