caducous

[kuh-doo-kuhs, -dyoo-]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

Botany.��dropping off very early, as leaves.
Zoology.��subject to shedding.
transitory; perishable.

caducous

/ ��əˈ��ː��ə�� /

adjective

biology (of parts of a plant or animal) shed during the life of the organism

caducous

Detaching or dropping off at an early stage of development. The gills of most amphibians and the sepals or stipules of certain plants are caducous.

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Word History and Origins

Origin of caducous¹

First recorded in 1675–85 for obsolete sense; 1805–10 for current senses; from Latin ��ū��ܲ� “unsteady, perishable,” equivalent to cad(ere) “to fall” + -ū��ܲ� adjective suffix ( -ous )

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Word History and Origins

Origin of caducous¹

C17: from Latin ��ū��ܲ� falling, from cadere to fall

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

They invariably come laden with words that seem meant to prove his vocabulary is bigger than yours: flocculent, crapulent, caducous, anaglypta, mephitic, velutinous.

From

Embryo recurved.—Trees with milky juice, alternate entire pinnately veined leaves, caducous stipules, axillary peduncles, and stout axillary spines.

From

Sepals.—Three; strongly arched, covered with bristly appressed hairs; caducous.

From

Calyx, 5 rounded sepals, tuberculate at the base, imbricated, caducous.

From

The first and the second glumes are unequal, persistent or separately caducous.

From

caducity Cadwalader

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