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appendix

 - 9 dictionary results

ap⋅pen⋅dix

[uh-pen-diks]
–noun, plural -dix⋅es, -di⋅ces [-duh-seez] .
1. supplementary material at the end of a book, article, document, or other text, usually of an explanatory, statistical, or bibliographic nature.
2. an appendage.
3. Anatomy.
a. a process or projection.
b. vermiform appendix.
4. Aeronautics. the short tube at the bottom of a balloon bag, by which the intake and release of buoyant gas is controlled.

Origin:
1535–45; < L: appendage, equiv. to append(ere) to append + -ix (equiv. to -ic- n. suffix + -s nom. sing. ending)


1. addendum, adjunct. Appendix, supplement both mean material added at the end of a book. An appendix gives useful additional information, but even without it the rest of the book is complete: In the appendix are forty detailed charts. A supplement, bound in the book or published separately, is given for comparison, as an enhancement, to provide corrections, to present later information, and the like: A yearly supplement is issued.


Appendices, a plural borrowed directly from Latin, is sometimes used, especially in scholarly writing, to refer to supplementary material at the end of a book.

vermiform appendix

–noun Anatomy, Zoology.
a narrow, blind tube protruding from the cecum, having no known useful function, in humans being 3 to 4 in. (8 to 10 cm) long and situated in the lower right-hand part of the abdomen.
Also called appendix.


Origin:
1770–80
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To appendix
ap·pen·dix   (ə-pěn'dĭks)   
n.   pl. ap·pen·dix·es or ap·pen·di·ces (-dĭ-sēz')
    1. An appendage.

    2. A collection of supplementary material, usually at the end of a book.

  1. The vermiform appendix.

  2. Anatomy A supplementary or accessory part of a bodily organ or structure.


[Latin, from appendere, to hang upon; see append.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Cultural Dictionary

appendix

A small saclike organ located at the upper end of the large intestine. The appendix has no known function in present-day humans, but it may have played a role in the digestive system in humans of earlier times. The appendix is also called the vermiform appendix because of its wormlike (“vermiform”) shape.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

appendix 
1549, "subjoined addition to a document or book," from L. appendix "something attached," from appendere (see append). Used for "small outgrowth of an internal organ" from 1615, especially in ref. to the vermiform appendix. Appendicitis is from 1886; appendectomy (1894) is a hybrid, with Gk. -ektomia "a cutting out of."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: ap·pen·dix
Pronunciation: &-'pen-diks
Function: noun
Inflected Form: plural ap·pen·dix·es or ap·pen·di·ces /-d&-"sEz/
: a bodily outgrowth or process; specifically : VERMIFORM APPENDIX

Main Entry: vermiform appendix
Function: noun
: a narrow blind tube usually about three or four inches (7.6 to 10.2 centimeters) long that extends from the cecum in thelower right-hand part of the abdomen, has much lymphoid wall tissue, normally communicates with the cavity of the cecum, and represents an atrophied terminal part of the cecum
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

appendix ap·pen·dix (ə-pěn'dĭks)
n. pl. ap·pen·dix·es or ap·pen·di·ces (-dĭ-sēz')

  1. A supplementary or an accessory part of an organ or a structure of the body.

  2. The vermiform appendix.

vermiform appendix n.
A wormlike intestinal diverticulum starting from the blind end of the cecum in the lower right-hand part of the abdomen and ending in a blind extremity.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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