CLOACA (cloacae)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: cloacae   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cloaca mean? 

• CLOACA (noun)
  The noun CLOACA has 2 senses:

1. (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

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

  Familiarity information: CLOACA used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CLOACA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("cloaca" is a kind of...):

bodily cavity; cavity; cavum ((anatomy) a natural hollow or sinus within the body)

Domain category:

zoological science; zoology (the branch of biology that studies animals)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A waste pipe that carries away sewage or surface water

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

cloaca; sewer; sewerage

Hypernyms ("cloaca" is a kind of...):

drain; drainpipe; waste pipe (a pipe through which liquid is carried away)

Holonyms ("cloaca" is a part of...):

sewage system; sewage works; sewer system (facility consisting of a system of sewers for carrying off liquid and solid sewage)

 Context examples 

Any bacterial organism that can be assigned to the species Enterobacter cloacae.

(Enterobacter cloacae, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

E. cloacae is associated with hospital-acquired urinary and respiratory tract infections and is used in industry for explosives biodegradation.

(Enterobacter cloacae, NCI Thesaurus)

An epithelial outgrowth of lymphoid tissue in the cloaca of young birds, responsible for B-lymphocyte maturation.

(Bursa Of Fabricius, NCI Thesaurus)