Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The protective cap or hood covering the spore case of a moss or related plant.
  • noun A similar hoodlike or caplike structure, such as a root cap.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A hood; a covering; a lid.
  • noun [capitalized] In zoology: Same as Calyptræa.
  • noun A genus of lepidopterous insects.
  • noun A genus of cœlenterates.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A little hood or veil, resembling an extinguisher in form and position, covering each of the small flasklike capsules which contain the spores of mosses; also, any similar covering body.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun botany In bryophytes, a thin, hood-like tissue that forms from the archegonium and covers the developing sporophyte.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the hood or cap covering the calyx of certain plants: e.g., the California poppy

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin, from Greek kaluptra, veil, from kaluptein, to cover; see kel- in Indo-European roots.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word calyptra.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.