Meanings
- not comparablebiologyCapable of being withdrawn by a backward movement of the parts from which it protrudes so that it becomes engulfed.
The acrembolic type has appeared independently several times in gastropods, including some heterobranchs, while the pleurembolic proboscis may have appeared only once.
2008, Winston Ponder, David R. Lindberg, Phylogeny and Evolution of the Mollusca, →ISBN, page 3462 more examples
Some scattered melanophores in fundus of atrium, a few pigment cells along seminal groove. Male atrium (a) narrow in front, wide behind. Its fundus forms a deep fold which receives seminal groove and functions as pleurembolic penis (p).
1970, Studies on the Fauna of Curaçao and Other Caribbean IslandsThe proboscis wall itself is highly muscular and has longitudinal, circular and diagonal muscle layers. It is of the pleurembolic type characteristic of the Buccinacea.
2003, Harold Barnes, Oceanography and Marine Biology, →ISBN, page 373
Origin
- Ancient Greekἔμβολος“peg, stopper”
- Ancient Greekπλευρά“a rib, a side of something”
- Englishpleurembolic
From Ancient Greek πλευρά (pleurá, “a rib, a side of something”) + Ancient Greek ἔμβολος (émbolos, “peg, stopper”).
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
pleurembolic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pleurembolic
“pleurembolic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pleurembolic. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pleurembolic,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pleurembolic.
Source: pleurembolic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.