Word.ws English Dictionary

scutoid

scutoid noun: a geometrical solid described as a mix between a frustum and a prismatoid. Also the alternative letter-case form of Scutoid.

Noun (1)

scutoid (plural scutoids)

  1. A geometrical solid described as a mix between a frustum and a prismatoid.
    • A scutoid can be regarded as a prism that is truncated at one or more vertices, with faces and edges sized such that suitably oriented copies of said scutoid can be arranged to fully pack the space between two planes.
    • As a consequence, epithelial cells adopt a novel shape that we term “scutoid”.[…]Using biophysical arguments, we propose that scutoids make possible the minimization of the tissue energy and stabilize three-dimensional packing.2018, Pedro Gómez-Gálvez, Pablo Vicente-Munuera, Antonio Tagua, et al., “Scutoids are a geometrical solution to three-dimensional packing of epithelia”, in Nature Communications, volume 9, →DOI

Noun (2) capitalized: Scutoid

Scutoid (uncountable)

  1. An induced genetic mutation in the fly Drosophila melanogaster.
    • Mapping close to the structural gene for alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) on chromosome arm 2L of Drosophila melanogaster is the dominant mutation Scutoid (Sco).1982, M. Ashburner, S. Tsubota, R. C. Woodruff, “The genetics of a small chromosome region of Drosophila melanogaster containing the structural gene for alcohol dehydrogenase. IV: scutoid, an...
    • Two independent lines of research led to the finding that the dominant Scutoid (Sco) mutation causes a diminshed extracellular electroantennogram response to the odorants ethyl acetate (EtAC) and acetone (AC).1995, Adrienne E. Dubin, Nathan L. Heald, Byrd Cleveland, John R. Carlson, Greg L. Harris, “Scutoid mutation of drosophila melanogaster specifically decreases olfactory responses to short‐chain...
  2. An individual fly with the genetic mutation.
    • Here have found that snail is ectopically expressed in the eye-antennal and wing imaginal discs in Scutoid larvae, and that this expression is reduced in Scutoid revertants.1999, N. Fuse, Hitoshi Matakatsu, Misako Taniguchi, Shigeo Hayashi, “Snail-type zinc finger proteins prevent neurogenesis in Scutoid and transgenic animals of Drosophila”, in Development Genes and...
  3. The gene affected by the mutation in D. melanogaster, or analogous genes in other species.
    • A mutation in scutoid is also known to affect the orientation of mechanosensory bristles of the eye (Birkholz et al. 2009).2019, Subhashree Priyadarsini, Moumita Sahoo, Swetapadma Sahu, Rasu Jayabalan, Monalisa Mishra, “An infection of Enterobacter ludwigii affects development and causes age-dependent neurodegeneration...

Also used as

scutoid is also the alternative letter-case form of Scutoid.

Examples of scutoid in a sentence

  • Our energetics analysis reveals that scutoids allow tissues to minimize the packing energy and we propose that such geometrical shape is nature’s solution to epithelial bending.2019, Felix Reichel, Johannes Mauer, Ahmad Ahsan Nawaz, Gerhard Gompper, Jochen R. Guck, Dmitry Fedosov, “High Troughput Microfluidic...
  • It has been postulated that ‘scutoids’ are part of a continuum of cell shapes and 3D arrangements, together with frusta and prisms2020, Ghislain Gillard, Katja Röper, “Control of cell shape during epithelial morphogenesis: recent advances”, in Current Opinion in...

Forms of scutoid

pluralscutoids
alternative formscutoid

Origin of scutoid

First described by Gómez-Gálvez et al. in a 2018 paper (see quotation below). Variously said to be from scutum or scutellum (parts of insect anatomy) or from Escudero, surname of one of the researchers, + -oid.

From scutellum + -oid.

From scutellum + -oid; the genetic mutation results in loss of scutellar bristles. Coined in 1959 by J.D. Krivshenko.

Questions about scutoid

What does scutoid mean?
Scutoid means a geometrical solid described as a mix between a frustum and a prismatoid.
How do you use scutoid in a sentence?
Our energetics analysis reveals that scutoids allow tissues to minimize the packing energy and we propose that such geometrical shape is nature’s solution to epithelial bending.
What part of speech is scutoid?
Scutoid is a noun.
What is the plural of scutoid?
The plural of scutoid is scutoids.

Words near scutoid in the dictionary

  1. scutigerid
  2. scutigerids
  3. scutigeromorph
  4. scutigeromorphs
  5. scutigerous
  6. scutoid
  7. scutoidal
  8. scutoids
  9. scutoscutellar
  10. scuts
  11. Scutt

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scutoid (page history and authors); Scutoid (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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Cite this entry: “scutoid.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scutoid. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.