Of, pertaining to, or resembling a tympan or tympanum; similar to or acting like a drumhead.In anatomy, of or pertaining to the tympanum: as, the tympanic cavity.n. A bone of the ear of man and mammals, supporting the tympanic membrane, generally annular or tubular, forming most of the meatus auditorius externus, or external auditory passage.n. Below mammals, in animals in which the true tympanic is rudimentary or wanting, the quadrate or pedicellate bone, the representative of the malleus; the suspensorium of the lower jaw, or especially its uppermost piece, the hyomandibular or epitympanic: so called by some who suppose it to be the tympanic bone, from the fact that it in part supports the tympanic membrane. See quadrate, n., 3 , hyomandibular, epitympanic, and other compounds of tympanic there citedn. In ornithology, sometimes, the tympano-occipital, considered as the true representative in birds of the tympanic of a mammal.