Word.ws English Dictionary

proboscis

/pɹə(ʊ)ˈbɒs(k)ɪs/US/pɹoʊˈbɑs(k)ɪs/

proboscis noun: an elongated tube from the head or connected to the mouth, of an animal.

Noun

proboscis (plural proboscises or proboscides or probosces)

  1. An elongated tube from the head or connected to the mouth, of an animal.
    • Don Caldwell, editor-in-chief of the site Know Your Meme, namechecks Brr Brr Patapim, “a proboscis monkey that is also a tree”, as one who made it to YouTube.2025 June 25, Elle Hunt, “From Chimpanzini Bananini to Ballerina Cappuccina: how gen alpha went wild for Italian brain rot animals”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
    1. The tubular feeding and sucking organ of certain invertebrates like insects, worms and molluscs.
      • Unlike the proboscides of Lower brachyceran lineages, which are continuous with the head capsule and tend to dangle (Matsuda 1965), the proboscides of most cyclorrhaphan species are suspended by a membranous region and divided into three functional parts: the basiproboscis (rostrum), medioproboscis...2012, Brian Wiegmann, The Evolutionary Biology of Flies, page 225
    2. The trunk of an elephant.
  2. (humorous, informal, mildly) A large or lengthy human nose.

proboscis meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Kannada and Sanskrit

proboscis in Tamil

உறிஞ்குழல், தும்பிக்கை, உறிஞ்சுக்குழல், குழல்வாய்

proboscis in Urdu

سونڈ

proboscis in Kannada

ಸೊಂಡಿಲು, ಶುಂಡ, ಆನೆಯ ಸೊಂಡಿಲು, ಮುಸುಡಿ, ಹೀರುನಳಿಕೆ

proboscis in Sanskrit

proboscis
नासिका nā́sikā
More languagesFewer languages
proboscis in Arabic
خُرْطُوم ḵurṭūm

Examples of proboscis in a sentence

  • Some worms are said to exsert the proboscis.
  • Generally echiuroids are sedentary, remaining in their holes or burrows and extending the proboscis to feed.
  • The proboscis wall itself is highly muscular and has longitudinal, circular and diagonal muscle layers.

All 10 example sentences with proboscis

Forms of proboscis

pluralproboscises
pluralproboscides
pluralprobosces

Origin of proboscis

From Latin proboscis, from Ancient Greek προβοσκίς (proboskís, “elephant's trunk”) literally "means for taking food," from προ- (pro-, “before”) + βόσκω (bóskō, “to nourish, feed”), from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʷeh₃- from which also comes βοτάνη (botánē, “grass, fodder”).

Words formed from proboscis

Phrases with proboscis

Questions about proboscis

What does proboscis mean?
Proboscis means an elongated tube from the head or connected to the mouth, of an animal.
What is proboscis in Tamil?
Proboscis in Tamil is உறிஞ்குழல், தும்பிக்கை, உறிஞ்சுக்குழல். See Proboscis meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is proboscis?
Proboscis is a noun.
How do you pronounce proboscis?
Proboscis is pronounced /pɹə(ʊ)ˈbɒs(k)ɪs/ (UK).
What is the plural of proboscis?
The plural of proboscis is proboscises.

Words near proboscis in the dictionary

  1. proboscidiferous
  2. proboscidiform
  3. probosciform
  4. probosciformed
  5. proboscipedia
  6. proboscis
  7. proboscis monkey
  8. proboscis monkeys
  9. proboscis worm
  10. proboscis worms
  11. proboscises

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: proboscis (page history and authors); proboscis (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); proboscis (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); proboscis (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); नासिका (Sanskrit) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-proboscis.wav.

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