Word.ws English Dictionary

tapetum lucidum

tapetum lucidum noun: a layer of tissue in the eye of many vertebrate animals, immediately behind or sometimes within the retina, that reflects visible light so as to increase the light available to the photoreceptors.

Noun

tapetum lucidum (plural tapeta lucida)

  1. A layer of tissue in the eye of many vertebrate animals, immediately behind or sometimes within the retina, that reflects visible light so as to increase the light available to the photoreceptors.

Forms of tapetum lucidum

pluraltapeta lucida

Origin of tapetum lucidum

From Latin tapētum (“tapestry”) and lūcidum (“bright, shining, clear”), the neuter of lūcidus, literally "bright tapestry".

Questions about tapetum lucidum

What does tapetum lucidum mean?
Tapetum lucidum means a layer of tissue in the eye of many vertebrate animals, immediately behind or sometimes within the retina, that reflects visible light so as to increase the light available to the photoreceptors.
What part of speech is tapetum lucidum?
Tapetum lucidum is a noun.
What is the plural of tapetum lucidum?
The plural of tapetum lucidum is tapeta lucida.

Words near tapetum lucidum in the dictionary

  1. tapetoretinal
  2. tapetosome
  3. tapetosomes
  4. tapets
  5. tapetum
  6. tapetum lucidum
  7. tapetums
  8. tapeweed
  9. tapeweeds
  10. tapework
  11. tapeworm

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tapetum lucidum (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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