Loading earlier words…
Rhinoscleroma

A rare disease of the skin, characterized by the development of very hard, more or less flattened, prominences, appearing first upon the nose and subsequently upon the neighboring parts, esp. the lips, palate, and throat.

Rhinoscopy

The examination or study of the soft palate, posterior nares, etc., by means of a laryngoscopic mirror introduced into the pharynx.

Rhinotheca

The sheath of the upper mandible of a bird.

Rhipidoglossa

A division of gastropod mollusks having a large number of long, divergent, hooklike, lingual teeth in each transverse row. It includes the scutibranchs. See Illustration in Appendix.

Rhipipter

One of the Rhipiptera, a group of insects having wings which fold like a fan; a strepsipter.

Rhizanthous

Producing flowers from a rootstock, or apparently from a root.

Rhizine

A rootlike filament or hair growing from the stems of mosses or on lichens; a rhizoid.

Rhizocarpous

Having perennial rootstocks or bulbs, but annual flowering stems; -- said of all perennial herbs.

Rhizocephala

A division of Pectostraca including saclike parasites of Crustacea. They adhere by rootlike extensions of the head. See Illusration in Appendix.

Rhizodont

A reptile whose teeth are rooted in sockets, as the crocodile.

Rhizogen

One of a proposed class of flowering plants growning on the roots of other plants and destitute of green foliage.

Rhizomatous

Having the nature or habit of a rhizome or rootstock.

Rhizome

A rootstock, such as one of an iris. See Rootstock.

Rhizophaga

A division of marsupials. The wombat is the type.

Rhizophora

A genus of trees including the mangrove. See Mangrove.

Rhizopoda

An extensive class of Protozoa, including those which have pseudopodia, by means of which they move about and take their food. The principal groups are Lobosa (or Am/bea), Helizoa, Radiolaria, and Foraminifera (or Reticularia). See Protozoa.

Rhizostomata

A suborder of Medusae which includes very large species without marginal tentacles, but having large mouth lobes closely united at the edges. See Illust. in Appendix.

Rhodammonium

Pertaining to, derived from, or containing, rhodium and ammonia; -- said of certain complex compounds.

Rhodanate

A salt of rhodanic acid; a sulphocyanate.

Rhodanic

Pertaining to, or designating, an acid (commonly called sulphocyanic acid) which frms a red color with ferric salts.

Rhodian

Of or pertaining to Rhodes, an island of the Mediterranean. A native or inhabitant of Rhodes.

Rhodic

Of or pertaining to rhodium; containing rhodium.

Rhodium

A rare element of the light platinum group. It is found in platinum ores, and obtained free as a white inert metal which it is very difficult to fuse. Symbol Rh. Atomic weight 104.1. Specific gravity 12.

Rhodizonic

Pertaining to, or designating, a colorless crystalline substance (called rhodizonic acid, and carboxylic acid) obtained from potassium carboxide and from certain quinones. It forms brilliant red, yellow, and purple salts.

Rhodochrosite

Manganese carbonate, a rose-red mineral sometimes occuring crystallized, but generally massive with rhombohedral cleavage like calcite; -- called also dialogite.

Rhododendron

A genus of shrubs or small trees, often having handsome evergreen leaves, and remarkable for the beauty of their flowers; rosebay.

Rhodonite

Manganese spar, or silicate of manganese, a mineral occuring crystallised and in rose-red masses. It is often used as an ornamental stone.

Rhodophane

The red pigment contained in the inner segments of the cones of the retina in animals. See Chromophane.

Rhodopsin

The visual purple. See under Visual.

Rhomb

An equilateral parallelogram, or quadrilateral figure whose sides are equal and the opposite sides parallel. The angles may be unequal, two being obtuse and two acute, as in the cut, or the angles may be equal, in which case it is usually called a square.

Rhomboganoid

A ganoid fish having rhombic enameled scales; one of the Rhomboganoidei.

Rhombogene

A dicyemid which produces infusorialike embryos; -- opposed to nematogene. See Dicyemata.

Rhombohedral

Related to the rhombohedron; presenting the form of a rhombohedron, or a form derivable from a rhombohedron; relating to a system of forms including the rhombohedron and scalenohedron.

Rhombohedron

A solid contained by six rhomboids; a parallelopiped.

Rhomboidal

Having, or approaching, the shape of a rhomboid.

Rhonchial

Of or pertaining to a rhonchus; produced by rhonchi.

Rhonchus

An adventitious whistling or snoring sound heard on auscultation of the chest when the air channels are partially obstructed. By some writers the term rhonchus is used as equivalent to r/le in its widest sense. See R/le.

Rhopalic

Applied to a line or verse in which each successive word has one more syllable than the preceding.

Rhopalium

One of the marginal sensory bodies of medusae belonging to the Discophora.

Rhopalocera

A division of Lepidoptera including all the butterflies. They differ from other Lepidoptera in having club-shaped antennae.

Rhotacism

An oversounding, or a misuse, of the letter r; specifically (Phylol.), the tendency, exhibited in the Indo-European languages, to change s to r, as wese to were.

Rhubarb

The name of several large perennial herbs of the genus Rheum and order Polygonaceae.

Rhumb

A line which crosses successive meridians at a constant angle; -- called also rhumb line, and loxodromic curve. See Loxodromic.

Rhus

A genus of shrubs and small treets. See Sumac.

Rhusma

A mixtire of caustic lime and orpiment, or tersulphide of arsenic, -- used in the depilation of hides.

Rhymer

One who makes rhymes; a versifier; -- generally in contempt; a poor poet; a poetaster.

Rhymery

The art or habit of making rhymes; rhyming; -- in contempt.

Rhynchobdellea

A suborder of leeches including those that have a protractile proboscis, without jaws. Clepsine is the type.

Rhynchocephala

An order of reptiles having biconcave vertebrae, immovable quadrate bones, and many other peculiar osteological characters. Hatteria is the only living genus, but numerous fossil genera are known, some of which are among the earliest of reptiles. See Hatteria. Called also Rhynchocephalia.

Rhynchonella

A genus of brachiopods of which some species are still living, while many are found fossil.

Rhynchophora

A group of Coleoptera having a snoutlike head; the snout beetles, curculios, or weevils.

Rhyolite

A quartzose trachyte, an igneous rock often showing a fluidal structure.

Rhyparography

In ancient art, the painting of genre or still-life pictures.

Rhysimeter

An instrument, acting on the principle of Pitot's tube, for measuring the velocity of a fluid current, the speed of a ship, etc.

Rhythm

In the widest sense, a dividing into short portions by a regular succession of motions, impulses, sounds, accents, etc., producing an agreeable effect, as in music poetry, the dance, or the like.

Rhythmer

One who writes in rhythm, esp. in poetic rhythm or meter.

Rhythmics

The department of musical science which treats of the length of sounds.

Rhythmometer

An instrument for marking time in musical movements. See Metronome.

Rial

A gold coin formerly current in England, of the value of ten shillings sterling in the reign of Henry VI., and of fifteen shillings in the reign of Elizabeth.

Riant

Laughing; laughable; exciting gayety; gay; merry; delightful to the view, as a landscape.

Rib

To furnish with ribs; to form with rising lines and channels; as, to rib cloth.

Ribald

Low; base; mean; filthy; obscene.

Ribaldry

The talk of a ribald; low, vulgar language; indecency; obscenity; lewdness; -- now chiefly applied to indecent language, but formerly, as by Chaucer, also to indecent acts or conduct.

Ribaudequin

An engine of war used in the Middle Ages, consisting of a protected elevated staging on wheels, and armed in front with pikes. It was (after the 14th century) furnished with small cannon.

Ribband

A long, narrow strip of timber bent and bolted longitudinally to the ribs of a vessel, to hold them in position, and give rigidity to the framework.

Ribbed

Furnished or formed with ribs; as, a ribbed cylinder; ribbed cloth.

Ribbing

An assemblage or arrangement of ribs, as the timberwork for the support of an arch or coved ceiling, the veins in the leaves of some plants, ridges in the fabric of cloth, or the like.

Ribbon

To adorn with, or as with, ribbons; to mark with stripes resembling ribbons.

Loading more words…