Carnassial Definition

kär-năsē-əl
adjective
Adapted for tearing apart flesh.
Carnassial teeth.
American Heritage Medicine
Designating or of teeth of a flesh-eating animal specialized for slicing or shearing rather than tearing, esp. the last premolars of the upper jaw and the first molars of the lower jaw.
Webster's New World
noun
A carnassial tooth.
Webster's New World
A tooth adapted for tearing apart flesh, especially one of the last upper premolar or first lower molar teeth in carnivorous mammals.
American Heritage Medicine

Other Word Forms of Carnassial

Noun

Singular:
carnassial
Plural:
carnassials

Origin of Carnassial

  • From French carnassier carnivorous from Provençal from carnasso meat in abundance from carn flesh from Latin carō carn- sker-1 in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

Carnassial Sentence Examples

  • With the single exception of the Indian sloth-bear, all the species have forty-two teeth, of which the incisors and canines closely resemble those of purely carnivorous mammals; while the molars, and especially the one known as the " sectorial " or " carnassial," have their surfaces tuberculated so as to adapt.

  • Cats, with their needle-like incisors and carnassial teeth, typically cause puncture wounds.

  • Carnassial teeth often cause puncture wounds when a cat bites a human.

Find Similar Words

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Words Starting With

CCACAR

Words Ending With

LALIAL

Unscrambles

carnassial

Words Starting With C and Ending With L

Starts With C & Ends With LStarts With CA & Ends With LStarts With C & Ends With AL

Word Length

10 Letter Words10 Letter Words Starting With C10 Letter Words Ending With L