rostrum

plural rostra · plural rostrums

1. A dais, pulpit, or similar platform for a speaker, conductor, or other performer.

   He saw a crowd listening to a man who was talking from the rostrum of a kitchen-chair.

   1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 27, in Babbitt

   Synonyms: dais, pulpit

2. A platform for a film or television camera.
3. The projecting prow of a rowed warship, such as a trireme.
4. biologyThe beak.
5. biologyThe beak-shaped projection on the head of insects such as weevils.

   1 more example

   I once saw two males fighting together; each had a fore-leg laid across the neck of the other, and the rostrum bent quite in an attitude of defiance, and looking most ridiculous. Another time, two were fighting for a female, who stood close by busy at her boring. They pushed at each other with their rostra, and clawed and thumped, apparently in the greatest rage, although their coats of mail must have saved both from injury.

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 277

6. biologyThe snout of a dolphin.
7. anatomyThe oral or nasal region of a human used for anatomical location (i.e. rostral).
8. biologyAny beak-like extension.
9. biologyThe inner segment of the coronal lobes in asclepiads.