Meanings
plural meatuses
- anatomyA tubular opening or passage leading to the interior of the body.
The urinary meatus is the opening of the urethra, situated on the glans penis in males, and in the vulva in females.
2 more examples
The illness. It came out of nowhere. His breathing all of a sudden started hurting the back of his throat. Then that overfull heat in various cranial meatus.
1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 60The vibrissae are coarse hairs whose follicles are located just within the nasal meatus.
2012, David W. Kennedy, Peter H. Hwang, editors, Rhinology: Diseases of the Nose, Sinuses, and Skull Base, Thieme, →ISBN - abbreviationellipsisanatomyEllipsis of acoustic meatus, the passage leading into the ear.
Synonyms: ear canal
Synonyms & antonyms
nounEllipsis of acoustic meatus, the passage leading into the ear.
Origin
- Latinmeātus“a going, passing; a way, path, passage”
- Englishmeatus
Learned borrowing from Latin meātus (“a going, passing; a way, path, passage”).
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans buis
- buistubular opening
Chinese Mandarin 道, 口
- 道 (dào)tubular opening
- 口 (kǒu)tubular opening
Finnish aukko, meatus
- aukkotubular opening
- meatustubular opening
French méat
- méattubular opening
German Gang
- Gangtubular opening
Italian meato
- meatotubular opening
Polish ujście przewodu
- ujście przewodutubular opening
Portuguese meato
- meatotubular opening
Spanish meato
- meatotubular opening
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with meatus
Anagrams
Cite this entry
meatus. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/meatus
“meatus.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/meatus. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “meatus,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/meatus.
Source: meatus on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.