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n. - A hard flap serving as a cover for (a) the gill slits in fishes or (b) the opening of the shell in certain gastropods when the body is retracted.

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Usage examples (38)
  • The snail in the middle with the aperture of its shell sealed with an operculum is Pomatias elegans.
  • In the case of P. elegans, the foot has to come out first to move the operculum, which is attached to the foot, out of the way.
  • Ammonites had an operculum (pl. opercula) as well.
  • I've lost track. is a pulmonate family with an operculum.
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We give special thanks to our LearnThat volunteers, as well as Princeton University and Wiktionary for their Open Source word data. We're also grateful for the support given by Google, Wordnik.com, Dictionary.com, Stands4.com and YouTube, OEDILF.com, Kylescholz.com, Best-Practice.com, Forvo.com, as well as the generous Creative Commons community.