ORIFICE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does orifice mean? 

• ORIFICE (noun)
  The noun ORIFICE has 1 sense:

1. an aperture or hole that opens into a bodily cavity

  Familiarity information: ORIFICE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ORIFICE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An aperture or hole that opens into a bodily cavity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

opening; orifice; porta

Context example:

the orifice into the aorta from the lower left chamber of the heart

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

passage; passageway (a path or channel or duct through or along which something may pass)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "orifice"):

fenestra (a small opening covered with membrane (especially one in the bone between the middle and inner ear))

rima (a narrow elongated opening or fissure between two symmetrical parts)

naris (any of the openings to the nasal cavities that allow air to flow through the cavities to the pharynx)

fontanel; fontanelle; soft spot (any membranous gap between the bones of the cranium in an infant or fetus)

anus (the excretory opening at the end of the alimentary canal)

pylorus (a small circular opening between the stomach and the duodenum)

external orifice; urethral orifice (the orifice through which urine is discharged)

introitus (entrance or opening to a hollow organ or tube (especially the vaginal opening))

cardia (the opening into the stomach and that part of the stomach connected to the esophagus)

vent (external opening of urinary or genital system of a lower vertebrate)

cervix; cervix uteri; uterine cervix (necklike opening to the uterus)

os (a mouth or mouthlike opening)

mouth (the externally visible part of the oral cavity on the face and the system of organs surrounding the opening)

spiracle (a breathing orifice)

porta hepatis (opening for major blood vessels to enter and leave the liver)

stoma (a mouth or mouthlike opening (especially one created by surgery on the surface of the body to create an opening to an internal organ))

aortic orifice (the orifice from the lower left chamber of the heart to the aorta)

blastopore (the opening into the archenteron)

 Context examples 

This huge sack had been sewn up at one end and only a small orifice left at the other.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The upper portion of a hair follicle extending from the sebaceous gland duct to the follicular orifice.

(Hair Follicle Infundibulum, NCI Thesaurus)

It is concave in shape and extends from the cardiac orifice to the pyloric orifice.

(Lesser Curvature of the Stomach, NCI Thesaurus)

A closure with a lid that is hinged to the top of a closure and opens to expose a dispensing orifice.

(Hinged Dispensing Plastic Container Closure, Food and Drug Administration)

Narrowing of the left atrioventricular mitral orifice.

(Mitral Stenosis, NCI Thesaurus)

The cardiac valve orifice is not abnormally narrow.

(No Cardiac Valve Stenosis, NCI Thesaurus/ACC)

The cardiac valve orifice is abnormally narrow, to a moderate degree.

(Moderate Cardiac Valve Stenosis, NCI Thesaurus/ACC)

The cardiac valve orifice is abnormally narrow, to a mild degree.

(Mild Cardiac Valve Stenosis, NCI Thesaurus/ACC)

The carina of trachea is part of the lowest tracheal cartilage which is placed between the orifices of the two bronchi.

(Carina, NCI Thesaurus)

The triangular area in the bladder mucosa that is formed by the two ureteral orifices and the urethral orifice.

(Bladder Trigone, NCI Thesaurus)