Word.ws English Dictionary

pectinate

/ˈpɛktəneɪt/

pectinate adjective: having narrow ridges or projections aligned close together like the teeth of a comb.

pectinate: having narrow ridges or projections aligned close together like the teeth of a comb
Image: Kurt Kulac (modified by gian_d ), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

pectinate (not comparable)

  1. Having narrow ridges or projections aligned close together like the teeth of a comb.
    • The moth's antennae were pectinate in shape, set with long teeth along one edge only.
    Synonyms:
    pectinated
  2. Striate.
    Synonyms:
    pectinated

Verb

pectinate (third-person singular simple present pectinates, present participle pectinating, simple past and past participle pectinated)

  1. (ambitransitive) To fit together in an alternating manner; to interlock or interdigitate.
    • To ſet croſſe legg’d, or with our fingers pectinated or ſhut together is accounted bad, and friends will perſwade us from it.1646, Thomas Browne, “Compendiouſly of many queſtionable cuſtomes, opinions, pictures, practiſes, and popular obſervations”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward...

Noun

pectinate (plural pectinates)

  1. An ester or salt formed of pectinic acid.

Synonyms of pectinate

Forms of pectinate

Verb
third-person singular presentpectinates
present participlepectinating
past participlepectinated
pastpectinated
Noun
pluralpectinates

Origin of pectinate

Borrowed from Latin pectinātus (“combed”), from pectinō (“to comb”), from pecten (“comb”). First attested in the mid-18th century. By surface analysis, Latin pectin- (“comb, scallop”) + -ate.

From pectin + -ate (“chemical suffix”).

Words formed from pectinate

Phrases with pectinate

Questions about pectinate

What does pectinate mean?
Pectinate means having narrow ridges or projections aligned close together like the teeth of a comb.
What part of speech is pectinate?
Pectinate can be an adjective, a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce pectinate?
Pectinate is pronounced /ˈpɛktəneɪt/.

Words near pectinate in the dictionary

  1. pectinals
  2. pectinariid
  3. pectinariids
  4. pectinase
  5. pectinases
  6. pectinate
  7. pectinate line
  8. pectinate lines
  9. pectinated
  10. pectinately
  11. pectinates

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pectinate (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pectinate.ogg.

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