acephalous

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.]

(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.

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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.

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.

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The adjective has one meaning:

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

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