Word.ws English Dictionary

regmacarp

Syllables: reg·ma·carp/ˈɹɛɡməkɑːp/US/ˈɹɛɡməkɑɹp/

regmacarp noun: a fruit which, when mature, splits open to release its seeds; a dehiscent fruit.

regmacarp: a fruit which, when mature, splits open to release its seeds; a dehiscent fruit
Image: Silk666, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

regmacarp (plural regmacarps)

  1. (obsolete, rare) A fruit which, when mature, splits open to release its seeds; a dehiscent fruit.
    • Taking the word Schizocarp as a type, I venture to suggest the term Achænocarp for the group of Achænes as used by Dr. [Alexander] Dickson, thus avoiding all confusion, and allowing the term Achæne to remain in its restricted sense. Regmacarp I would apply to the group of capsules, using the term...1871 October 12, W[illiam] R[amsay] McNab, “Remarks on the Classification of Fruits”, in Nature: A Weekly Illustrated Journal of Science, volume IV, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC...
    • The truth is, that it is impossible to find a classification of fruits which is founded on strictly scientific principles—the forms merging into each other; […] Accordingly, in the following classification, in which we have mainly followed Dr [Maxwell Tylden] Masters, all the less easily defined...1874, Robert Brown, “The Fruit”, in A Manual of Botany: Anatomical and Physiological: For the Use of Students, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, pages 482–483

Forms of regmacarp

pluralregmacarps

Origin of regmacarp

From Ancient Greek ῥῆγμα (rhêgma, “something broken or rent asunder; a breach, cleft, fracture”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”)) + English -carp (suffix meaning ‘part of a fruit or fruiting body’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kerp- (“to harvest; to pluck”)), modelled after schizocarp. The word was probably coined by the Scottish physician and botanist William Ramsay McNab (1844–1889): see the 1871 article from the journal Nature quoted below.

Questions about regmacarp

What does regmacarp mean?
Regmacarp means a fruit which, when mature, splits open to release its seeds; a dehiscent fruit.
What part of speech is regmacarp?
Regmacarp is a noun.
How do you pronounce regmacarp?
Regmacarp is pronounced /ˈɹɛɡməkɑːp/ (UK).
What is the plural of regmacarp?
The plural of regmacarp is regmacarps.

Words near regmacarp in the dictionary

  1. reglued
  2. reglues
  3. regluing
  4. reglycosylation
  5. regma
  6. regmacarp
  7. regmacarps
  8. regmaglypt
  9. regmaglypted
  10. regmaglyptic
  11. regmaglypts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: regmacarp (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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