epiglottis.
A cartilaginous organ in the throat of terrestrial vertebrates covering the glottis when swallowing to prevent food and liquid from entering the trachea, and in Homo sapiens also a speech organ.
Meaning & usage
A cartilaginous organ in the throat of terrestrial vertebrates covering the glottis when swallowing to prevent food and liquid from entering the trachea, and in Homo sapiens also a speech organ.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épi Proto-Hellenic *epí Ancient Greek ἐπί (epí) Ancient Greek ἐπῐ- (epĭ-) Proto-Hellenic *glṓt͏̌t͏̌ā Ancient Greek γλῶσσᾰ (glôssă) Pre-Greekder. Ancient Greek -ις (-is) Ancient Greek γλωσσῐ́ς (glōssĭ́s) Ancient Greek ἐπῐγλωσσῐ́ς (epĭglōssĭ́s) Ancient Greek ἐπῐγλωττῐ́ς (epĭglōttĭ́s)bor. New Latin epiglōttislbor. English epiglottis Borrowed from New Latin epiglōttis, from Ancient Greek ἐπῐγλωττῐ́ς (epĭglōttĭ́s, “valve covering the larynx”), from ἐπῐ- (epĭ-, “upon, over”) + γλωττῐ́ς (glōttĭ́s, “glottis, mouth of the windpipe”); equivalent to epi- (“upon; above”) + glottis.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.