vitta

[ vit-uh ]

noun,plural vit·tae [vit-ee]. /ˈvɪt i/.
  1. Botany. a tube or receptacle for oil, occurring in the fruits of most plants of the parsley family.

  2. Zoology, Botany. a streak or stripe, as of color.

Origin of vitta

1
1685–95; <Latin: ribbon, fillet, akin to viēre to weave together

Words Nearby vitta

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use vitta in a sentence

  • He laid a hand unsteady with its tremor of delight and young eagerness upon the vitta and it slipped off her hair.

    The City of Delight | Elizabeth Miller
  • Shall I recommend my young friend to wrap up the heads of his Vestals in a vitta?

    Gryll Grange | Thomas Love Peacock
  • Back of the abdomen of the male with an interrupted black vitta down the middle.

  • The decorative designs of the villa of Evian adorn the vestibule of the home of Baron vitta.

  • vitta (plural vitt), the oil-tubes of the fruit of Umbellifer.

British Dictionary definitions for vitta

vitta

/ (ˈvɪtə) /


nounplural -tae (-tiː)
  1. any of numerous tubelike cavities containing oil or resin that occur in the fruits of certain plants, esp of parsley and other umbellifers

  2. biology a band or stripe of colour

Origin of vitta

1
C17: from Latin: headband; related to viēre to plait

Derived forms of vitta

  • vittate, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012