duct
pronunciation
How to pronounce duct in British English:
UK [dʌkt]
How to pronounce duct in American English:
US [dʌkt]
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- Noun:
- a bodily passage or tube lined with epithelial cells and conveying a secretion or other substance
- a continuous tube formed by a row of elongated cells lacking intervening end walls
- an enclosed conduit for a fluid
Word Origin
- duct
- duct: [17] Duct comes from Latin ductus, a noun formed from the past participle of the verb dūcere ‘lead’. This is among the most prolific Latin sources of English words. It appears in numerous prefixed forms, all containing to some extent the underlying meaning element ‘lead’, such as deduce, introduce, produce, and reduce, as well as educate and, in less obvious form, subdue.Its past participle produced aqueduct and ductile [14], not to mention (via Vulgar Latin *ductiāre and Italian docciare) douche [18]. And furthermore it comes ultimately from the same Indo-European source as produced English team, teem, tie, tight, tow, and tug.=> aqueduct, conduct, deduce, deduct, douche, duke, educate, introduce, produce, reduce, seduce, team, tie, tight, tow, tug
- duct (n.)
- 1640s, "course, direction," from Latin ductus "a leading," past participle of ducere "to lead" (see duke (n.)). Anatomical sense is from 1660s. Meaning "conduit, channel" is 1713; that of "air tube in a structure" is from 1884.
Example
- 1. He tours and releases cds . His logo appears on t-shirts , baseball caps and , oddly , duct tape .
- 2. The study focused on the most common types of breast cancer that are thought to arise in the milk duct .
- 3. Ideally , either side of the bend should be lined along a length equivalent to twice the duct diameter .
- 4. When the boat is under sail , water forced through the duct turns the blades of a small hydroelectric generator that charges a bank of lithium-ion batteries .
- 5. In atyical hyperplasia , an increased number of cells line the milk duct or lobule , than is typical and the cells do not look normal under a microscope , but they are not cancerous , according to dr. ghosh .