[plak] 
| 1. | a thin, flat plate or tablet of metal, porcelain, etc., intended for ornament, as on a wall, or set in a piece of furniture. |
| 2. | an inscribed commemorative tablet, usually of metal placed on a building, monument, or the like. |
| 3. | a platelike brooch or ornament, esp. one worn as the badge of an honorary order. |
| 4. | Anatomy, Pathology. a flat, often raised, patch on the skin or other organ, as on the inner lining of arterial walls in atherosclerosis. |
| 5. | Dentistry. a soft, sticky, whitish matlike film attached to tooth surfaces, formed largely by the growth of bacteria that colonize the teeth. |
| 6. | Bacteriology. a cleared region in a bacterial culture, resulting from lysis of bacteria by bacteriophages. |
| plaque (plāk) n.
[French, from Old French, metal plate, perhaps from Middle Dutch placke, disk, patch.] |
A thin film composed of bacteria, mucus, and food particles that forms on the surfaces of teeth. Plaque contributes to tooth decay and gum disease. Plaque also refers to a combination of cholesterol and lipids that can accumulate on the inside of arteries, causing atherosclerosis.
plaque (plāk)
n.
A small disk-shaped formation or growth; a patch.
A deposit of fatty material on the inner lining of an arterial wall, characteristic of atherosclerosis.
Dental plaque.
A clear, often round patch of lysed cells in an otherwise opaque layer of a bacteria or cell culture.
A scaly patch formed on the skin by psoriasis.
A sharply defined zone of demyelination characteristic of multiple sclerosis.
plaque (plāk) Pronunciation Key
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