Torus

Quick meaning: Torus is a noun meaning (anatomy) A rounded ridge of bone or muscle, especially one on the occipital bone.

Meaning

(anatomy) A rounded ridge of bone or muscle, especially one on the occipital bone.

More Meanings

1. (architecture) A large convex molding, typically semicircular in cross section, which commonly projects at the base of a column and above the plinth.
2. (botany) The end of the peduncle or flower stalk to which the floral parts (or in the Asteraceae, the florets of a flower head) are attached.
3. (botany) The thickening of a membrane closing a wood-cell pit (as of gymnosperm tracheids) having the secondary cell wall arched over the pit cavity.
4. (geometry) The standard representation of such a space in 3-dimensional Euclidean space: a surface or solid formed by rotating a closed curve, especially a circle, about a line which lies in the same plane but does not intersect it (e.g. like a ring doughnut).

Example Sentences

While there is a hereditary component to tori, this does not explain all cases. Tori tend to appear more frequently during middle age of life; the torus palatinus is more commonly observed in females, but this is not the case with the torus mandibularis. Certain ethnic groups are more prone to one torus or the other.

Word Forms

• tori
• toruses

Synonyms for torus

Depending on context, synonyms include thalamus, tore, toroid.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include toroid, tore, torroid, hypertoroid, semitorus, semitoroid.

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