Meanings
plural glossae · plural glossas
- biologyThe tongue, or lingua, especially of an insect.
It was his glossa, strange that; when dead men had no need to verbalize.
2018, Gloria Trubbshore, Băṭluptă, Xlibris, →ISBN3 more examples
They wished to see what Holy would do with the glossa. “The innocent will tell no lies.” The organ eventually had been divided into nineteen sections, distributed, and ingested. “We swallow your lies and cause them to build our powers.”
2016, Dr. Jol, Suburban Brand, Charlotte Publishing Press, →ISBNHer swollen “button” hitting his glossa tip provided wave after wave of full body pleasure.
2016, Dr. JD Philip, “The Wedding”, in Victoria: A Pirate Romance, Charlotte Publishing Press, →ISBN, page 230In the Paragiina, the proximal region of the glossa is elongated, and the paraglossae are long and reach the bifid apex of the glossa.
2019, Harald W. Krenn, Insect Mouthparts: Form, Function, Development and Performance, page 452 - human sciencesUnintelligible ecstatic speech.
Although Samarin has examples of glossas from people who are not adherents to Christianity he does feel that occurences^([sic]) of glossolalia apart from Christian influences are rare.
1976, Linguistics, page 873 more examples
This pattern does not hold in the glossas we have examined: [th] occurs where we expect [], as in the “word” kita in our sample text, and [] occurs freely in other American glossas as an independent sound unit,[…]
1968, William J. Samarin, The Linguiticality of Glossolalia, page 64I have analysed a total of 24 prophetic glossas in this way, and 10 passages of the more easily intelligible prayer specimens of glossolalia. These glossas emanate from a total of 15 persons.
1975, Temenos, page 50Thus significant differences exist between the glossas of different individuals: indeed, one person may have more than one distinctive glossa. And there are differences between the glossas of people of different linguistic backgrounds which correspond with the differences between their mother tongues, allowing for the influence of other languages which they may know to some extent.
2008, B. Ward Powers, “Excursus 4: Tongues-Speaking Today: A Comment”, in First Corinthians: An Exegetical and Explanatory Commentary; A Consideration of Some Views Ancient and Modern in the Light of a Verse-by-Verse Look at What the Text Actually Says; A Somewhat Traditional Interpretation Plus Contemporary Application, Eugene, Ore.: Wipf and Stock, →ISBN, page 409
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna mobile mass of muscular tissue covered with mucous membrane and located in the oral cavity
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Ancient Greekγλῶσσᾰ“tongue”
- Englishglossa
From the Ancient Greek γλῶσσᾰ (glôssă, “tongue”). Doublet of gloss.
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian ези́к
- ези́к (ezík)zoology: insect’s tongue, lingua
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with glossa
All rhymes →Cite this entry
glossa. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/glossa
“glossa.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/glossa. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “glossa,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/glossa.
Source: glossa on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.