Word.ws English Dictionary

orbicula

orbicula noun: a dorsal sclerite over a hymenopteran arolium; a hard exoskeletal feature with species-specific shape that overhangs and protects the adhesive tip of such an insect's leg and around which the claw(s) curl. Abbreviation "or" or "rb".

Noun

orbicula (plural orbiculas or orbiculae)

  1. A dorsal sclerite over a hymenopteran arolium; a hard exoskeletal feature with species-specific shape that overhangs and protects the adhesive tip of such an insect's leg and around which the claw(s) curl. Abbreviation "or" or "rb".
  2. (dated) A discina (brachiopod).

Forms of orbicula

pluralorbiculas
pluralorbiculae

Origin of orbicula

Misconstruction of Latin orbiculus, a back-formation from orbicle.

Words formed from orbicula

Questions about orbicula

What does orbicula mean?
Orbicula means a dorsal sclerite over a hymenopteran arolium; a hard exoskeletal feature with species-specific shape that overhangs and protects the adhesive tip of such an insect's leg and around which the claw(s) curl. Abbreviation "or" or "rb".
What part of speech is orbicula?
Orbicula is a noun.
What is the plural of orbicula?
The plural of orbicula is orbiculas.

Words near orbicula in the dictionary

  1. Orbelians
  2. orbic
  3. orbical
  4. orbicle
  5. orbicles
  6. orbicula
  7. orbiculae
  8. orbicular
  9. orbicular stigma
  10. orbiculares
  11. orbiculares oculorum

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: orbicula (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.

Last updated:

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