1-Stop Dictionary Reference

Cloaca

Acceptable For Game Play - US & UK word lists

This word is acceptable for play in the US & UK dictionaries that are being used in the following games:

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. A sewer or latrine.

n. Zoology The common cavity into which the intestinal, genital, and urinary tracts open in vertebrates such as fish, reptiles, birds, and some primitive mammals.

n. Zoology The posterior part of the intestinal tract in various invertebrates.

Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A sewer.

n. A privy.

n. The common duct in fish, reptiles, birds and some primitive mammals that serves as the anus as well as the genital opening.

the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. A sewer.

n. A privy.

n. The common chamber into which the intestinal, urinary, and generative canals discharge in birds, reptiles, amphibians, and many fishes.

The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. An underground conduit for drainage; a common sewer: as, the cloaca maxima at Rome.

n. A sink; a privy.

n. [NL.] In zoology: In vertebrates, the enlarged termination of the rectum or lower bowel, forming a cavity originally in common with that of the allantois (in those animals which have an allantois) and permanently in common with the termination of the urogenital organs; the common chamber into which the intestine, ureters, sperm-ducts, and oviducts open, in sundry fishes, in reptiles and birds, and in the ornithodelphous mammals.

n. In invertebrates, the homologous or analogous and corresponding structure effecting sewerage of the body: as in sponges, the common cavity in which the interstitial canal-systems open; in holothurians, the respiratory tree (which see, under respiratory).

n. In entomology: A cavity found in many insects at the end of the abdomen, between the last dorsal and ventral segments, and receiving the extremity of the rectum. Also called the rectogenital chamber. The cæcum, or dilatation of the posterior end of the intestine.

n. In ascidians, the common central cavity into which open the atrial chambers of all the ascidiozooids of an ascidiarium.

n. [NL.] In pathology: In cases of necrosis, the opening in the sound bone which leads to the inclosed dead bone.

n. The union of rectum, bladder, and organs of generation in a common outlet: a malformation resulting from arrest of development.

WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

n. (zoology) the cavity (in birds, reptiles, amphibians, most fish, and monotremes but not mammals) at the end of the digestive tract into which the intestinal, genital, and urinary tracts open

n. a waste pipe that carries away sewage or surface water

Word Usage

"Luther is quoted as saying he was "in cloaca", or in the sewer, when he was inspired to argue that salvation is granted because of faith, not deeds."

Hypernym

Words that are more generic or abstract

cavum cavity bodily cavity waste pipe drain drainpipe

Variant

cloacae

Form

cloacal

Synonym

Words with the same meaning

sewer privy vent

Same Context

Words that are found in similar contexts

mea nemorum bret nissan superintendant snoot