point

1. a small spot or a minute area. n 2. a rotating instrument having a small cutting end or surface.

1. a small area or spot; the sharp end of an object.
2. to approach the surface, like the pus of an abscess, at a definite spot or place.
3. a single tine of an antler.
4. extremities of a sheep fleece which has been removed from the sheep and laid out on a classing table.

• auricular p. — the center of the opening of the external acoustic meatus.
• boiling p. — the temperature at which a liquid will boil: at sea level, 212°F (100°C).
• p. of buttock — the prominence caused by the ischial tuberosity.
• p. of croup — highest point of the croup; caused by the sacral tuberosity.
• dew p. — the temperature at which moisture in the atmosphere is deposited as dew.
• p. of the elbow — the summit of the olecranon process.
• p. firing — see firing.
• freezing p. — the temperature at which a liquid begins to freeze; for water, 32°F (0°C).
• p. of the hip — the most lateral point of the hip; caused by the coxal tuberosity.
• p. of the hock — the summit of the calcaneus.
• ice p. — the temperature of equilibrium between ice and air-saturated water under one atmosphere pressure.
• isobestic p. — the wavelength at which two substances have the same absorptivity.
• isoelectric p. (pI) — the pH of a solution in which molecules of a specific substance, such as a protein, have equal numbers of positively and negatively charged groups and therefore do not migrate in an electric field.
• lacrimal p. — lacrimal puncta.
• p. of lay — the age of sexual maturity in female fowls.
• p. of maximal impulse (PMI) — the point on the chest where the impulse of the left ventricle is felt most strongly. It is usually on the left chest wall, around the area of the 5th costochondral junction.
• melting p. — the minimum temperature at which a solid begins to liquefy.
• nodal p's — two points on the axis of an optical system situated so that a ray falling on one will produce a parallel ray emerging through the other.
• p. outbreak — see point epidemic.
• paper p. — very fine, tapered swabs used in endodontics to dry up the root canal.
• p. prescriptions — details of the exact needle procedures and locations of insertions for the treatment of specific diseases.
• p. prevalence rate — the proportion of the animals in a population at a point in time which are affected by the subject disease at that point. Called also instantaneous prevalence.
• p. selection — can be based on a table of prescriptions for specific diseases, or on the basis of which acupoints are tender, or on the basis of the innervation of the area of the lesion, and so on for a series of 11, and possibly more, strategies.
• p. of the shoulder — the point over the greater tubercle of the humerus.
• p. source epidemic — see point epidemic.
• p. of the sternum — the most cranial point of the sternum, caused by the manubrium.
• trigger p. — a spot on the body at which pressure or other stimulus gives rise to specific sensations or clinical signs.
• triple p. — the temperature and pressure at which the solid, liquid, and gas phases of a substance are in equilibrium.