patera
patera noun: a broad, shallow dish used for drinking, primarily in ritual contexts such as libations.
Noun
patera (plural paterae)
- A broad, shallow dish used for drinking, primarily in ritual contexts such as libations.
- A circular ornament, resembling a dish, often worked in relief on friezes etc.
- The caldera or crater (dish-shaped depression) atop a volcano, especially an extraterrestrial one; also used in the names of extraterrestrial volcanoes which have such a caldera.
- What caused the transitions from explosive to effusive volcanism in the Circum-Hellas Volcanic Province generally and during the eruptive lifetimes of individual highland patera volcanoes?2020, James R. Zimbelman, David A. Crown, Peter J. Mouginis-Mark, Tracy K. P. Gregg, The Volcanoes of Mars, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 116
- Note that the eroded plains materials to the right of the patera show no signs of individual lava flows.2021, Tracy K. P. Gregg, Rosaly M. Lopes, Sarah A. Fagents, Planetary Volcanism across the Solar System, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 89
Forms of patera
| plural | paterae |
|---|
Origin of patera
From Latin patera.
Words formed from patera
Questions about patera
- What does patera mean?
- Patera means a broad, shallow dish used for drinking, primarily in ritual contexts such as libations.
- What part of speech is patera?
- Patera is a noun.
- What is the plural of patera?
- The plural of patera is paterae.
Words near patera in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: patera (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: “patera.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/patera. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.