Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

acephalous

 
Dictionary: a·ceph·a·lous   (ā-sĕf'ə-ləs) pronunciation
adj.
  1. Biology. Headless or lacking a clearly defined head: acephalous worms.
  2. Having no leader.

[From Medieval Latin acephalus, from Greek akephalos : a-, without; see a-1 + kephalē, head; see -cephalous.]


Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics
Wordsmith Words: acephalous
Top

(ay-SEF-uh-luhs)

adjective
1. Headless or lacking a clearly defined head.
2. Having no leader.

Etymology
From Medieval Latin acephalus, from Greek akephalos : a-, without + kephale, head.

Usage
"This year the Petri dish has seethed with wriggly micro-organisms. Laa-Laa, Tinky Winky, Dipsy and Po, with their diapered bums and ancient gnomic faces, coo and gurgle as they pet Dolly the cloned sheep; the animated contents of a spice rack dance with a new breed of acephalous rodents. These lower life-forms make an alarming sight. Writhing on the glass, are the contents of our collective imagination." — Conrad, Peter, Sacred Monsters Headless Rats, Idiot Pianists, Pampered Martyrs And Plaster Saints, The Observer, Dec 28, 1997.


Literary Dictionary: acephalous
Top

acephalous [a‐sef‐ăl‐ŭs], the Greek word for ‘headless’, applied to a metrical verse line that lacks the first syllable expected according to regular metre; e.g. an iambic pentameter missing the first unstressed syllable, as sometimes in Chaucer:

Twenty bookès, clad in blak or reed

Noun: acephalexis.

See also truncation.
Devil's Dictionary: acephalous
Top
A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce


adj.

In the surprising condition of the Crusader who absently pulled at his forelock some hours after a Saracen scimitar had, unconsciously to him, passed through his neck, as related by de Joinville.


WordNet: acephalous
Top
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The adjective has one meaning:

Meaning #1: (biology) lacking a head or a clearly defined head


 
 
Learn More
encephalous
defective foot
truncation

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wordsmith Words. © 2009 Wordsmith.org. All rights reserved.  Read more
Literary Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
Devil's Dictionary. Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, 1911  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more