Adjacent Words

Acephalous definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ACEPH'ALOUS, a. [Gr. a priv., a head.]
Without a head, headless. In history, the term Acephali, or Acephalites was given to several sects who refused to follow some noted leader, and to such bishops as were exempt from the jurisdiction and discipline of their patriarch. It was also given to certain levelers who acknowledged no head in the reign of Henry 1st. It was also applied to the Blemmyes, a pretended nation of Africa, and to other tribes in the East, whom ancient naturalists represented as having no head; their eyes and mouth being placed in other parts. Modern discoveries have dissipated these fictions. In English Laws, men who held lands of no particular lord, and clergymen who were under no bishop.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: lacking a head or a clearly defined head; "acephalous worms"

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Greek akephalos, from a- + kephal? head — more at cephalic Date: circa 1731 1. lacking a head or having the head reduced 2. lacking a governing head or chief

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 headless. 2 having no chief. 3 Zool. having no part of the body specially organized as a head. 4 Bot. with a head aborted or cut off. 5 Prosody lacking a syllable or syllables in the first foot. Etymology: med.L acephalus f. Gk akephalos headless (as A-(1), kephale head)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Acephalous A*ceph"a*lous, a. [See Acephal.] 1. Headless. 2. (Zo["o]l.) Without a distinct head; -- a term applied to bivalve mollusks. 3. (Bot.) Having the style spring from the base, instead of from the apex, as is the case in certain ovaries. 4. Without a leader or chief. 5. Wanting the beginning. A false or acephalous structure of sentence. --De Quincey. 6. (Pros.) Deficient and the beginning, as a line of poetry. --Brande.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Headless, without organization, disorganized, confused, anarchical, disorderly, lumbering, aimless, shapeless, amorphous.