Adjacent Words

caecum definitions

	Tweet

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the cavity in which the large intestine begins and into which the ileum opens; "the appendix is an offshoot of the cecum" [syn: cecum, caecum, blind gut]

Merriam Webster's

variant of cecum

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (US cecum) (pl. -ca) a blind-ended pouch at the junction of the small and large intestines. Derivatives: caecal adj. Etymology: L for intestinum caecum f. caecus blind, transl. of Gk tuphlon enteron

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Caecum C[ae]"cum, n.; pl. C[ae]cums, L. C[ae]ca. [L. caecus blind, invisible, concealed.] (Anat.) (a) A cavity open at one end, as the blind end of a canal or duct. (b) The blind part of the large intestine beyond the entrance of the small intestine; -- called also the blind gut. Note: The c[ae]cum is comparatively small in man, and ends in a slender portion, the vermiform appendix; but in herbivorous mammals it is often as large as the rest of the large intestine. In fishes there are often numerous intestinal c[ae]ca.