uvula

uvula

See also: Uvula and úvula

English

WOTD – 4 November 2008

Uvula

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin ūvula, diminutive of ūva (“grape”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈjuː.vjʊl.ə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈju.vjəl.ə/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Homophone: uvular (in non-rhotic accents)

Noun

uvula (plural uvulae or uvulas or (obsolete) uvulæ)

1. (anatomy) Ellipsis of palatine uvula.: the fleshy appendage that hangs from the back of the soft palate, that closes the nasopharynx during swallowing

   Synonym: staphyle

2. (anatomy) the slight elevation in the mucous membrane immediately behind the internal urethral orifice of the urinary bladder, caused by the middle lobe of the prostate
3. (music) an object so suspended inside a bell that it may hit the bell and cause it to ring; a clapper

Usage notes

• The Oxford English Dictionary (second edition, 1989) marks this word as not naturalized in English.

Derived terms

• uvular (adjective)
• uvulatome
• uvulatomy
• uvulo-, uvul-

Translations

appendage that hangs from the palate

Adyghe: бзэгужъый (bzegʷuẑəj) Arabic: لَهَاة‎ f (lahāh) Egyptian Arabic: لهاة‎ f (laha) Aragonese: please add this translation if you can Armenian: լեզվակ (hy) (lezvak) Asturian: campanín m Azerbaijani: dilçək Belarusian: язычо́к m (jazyčók) Breton: hugenn Bulgarian: мъже́ц m (mǎžéc) Catalan: úvula (ca) f, llengüeta (ca) f, neulella (ca) f, garganxó (ca) m Central Melanau: aneak tengad Cherokee: please add this translation if you can Chinese: Mandarin: 懸雍垂／悬雍垂 (zh) (xuányōngchuí), 小舌 (zh) (xiǎoshé), 小舌兒／小舌儿 (zh) (xiǎoshér) Czech: čípek (cs) m Danish: drøbel (da) c Dutch: huig (nl) Esperanto: uvulo Estonian: kurgunibu Faroese: úlvsur m, úlvur m Finnish: kitakieleke (fi) French: luette (fr) f, uvule (fr) f, uvula (fr) f Galician: úvula f, campaíña f, pinguel m, galiño m, galillo m, pingallón m Georgian: ენის კლიტე (enis ḳliṭe) German: Gaumenzäpfchen n, Uvula (de) f Greek: σταφυλή (el) f (stafylí) Ancient: γαργαρεών m (gargareṓn) Gujarati: પડજીભ (paḍjībh) Hebrew: ענבל‎ (he) (in'bal) Hindi: अलिजिह्वा (hi) (alijihvā) Hungarian: nyelvcsap (hu), uvula (hu), ínyvitorla Icelandic: úfur (is) m Ido: uvulo (io) Indonesian: anak lidah (id), anak tekak (id), uvula (id) Iranun: mananalu Irish: sine siain f Italian: ugola (it) f Japanese: 口蓋垂 (こうがいすい, kōgaisui), 懸壅垂 (けんようすい, ken'yōsui) (rare), のどちんこ (nodochinko) Kazakh: тілше (tılşe) Khmer: កន្លើត (km) (kɑnlaət) Kimaragang: langguk Korean: 목젖 (ko) (mokjeot) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: zimanok (ku) m Lotud: landuk, angguk-angguk Macedonian: у́вула (úvula) Malay: anak lidah (ms), anak tekak, uvula (ms) Manchu: ᡳᠯᠮᠠᡥᠠ (ilmaha) Maori: miramira Navajo: adáziz Norwegian: drøvel (no) Occitan: uvula f, uèla f, luseta (oc) f Persian: ملازه‎ (fa) (malāze), زبان کوچک‎ (zābān-e-kucak) Polish: języczek (pl) m Portuguese: úvula (pt) f Punjabi: ਕਾਂ (pa) m (kā̃) Romanian: uvulă (ro) f, omușor (ro) m Romansch: please add this translation if you can Rungus: llangguk Russian: язычо́к (ru) m (jazyčók), нёбный язычо́к m (njóbnyj jazyčók), у́вула f (úvula), нёбная заве́са f (njóbnaja zavésa) Saanich: MELḰ Scottish Gaelic: cìoch-shlugain f Serbo-Croatian: ȕvula (sh) f, увула f Slovak: čapík m Slovene: uvula f Spanish: úvula (es) f, campanilla (es) f Swahili: kilimi Swedish: gomspene (sv) c, tungspene c Tagal Murut: taruk tantalanan Tagalog: kuntil, tilao Tamil: please add this translation if you can Telugu: చిరునాలుక (te) (cirunāluka), కొండనాలుక (te) (koṇḍanāluka) Thai: ลิ้นไก่ (th) (lín gài) Timugon Murut: taruk tantalanan Turkish: küçük dil (tr) Ukrainian: язичо́к (uk) m (jazyčók) Urdu: please add this translation if you can Uyghur: كىچىك تىل‎ (kichik til) Vietnamese: lưỡi gà (vi) Volapük: lüät Welsh: tafodig m, tafod bach m West Coast Bajau: pegad West Frisian: hûch Westrobothnian: tongspena m Yiddish: אוּוווּלע‎ f (uvule) Zhuang: linxgaeq

References

• “uvula”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “uvula”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

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French

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Late Latin ūvula (“small grape”), diminutive of Latin ūva. Doublet of uvule, another borrowing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /y.vy.la/

Noun

uvula f (plural uvulas)

1. uvula, palatine uvula

   Synonyms: luette, uvule

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Latin

Etymology

From ūva (“a grape”) +‎ -ula (“diminutive suffix”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈuː.u̯u.la/, [ˈuːu̯ʊɫ̪ä]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈu.vu.la/, [ˈuːvulä]

Noun

ūvula f (genitive ūvulae); first declension (Late Latin)

1. Diminutive of ūva.

Inflection

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ūvula	ūvulae
Genitive	ūvulae	ūvulārum
Dative	ūvulae	ūvulīs
Accusative	ūvulam	ūvulās
Ablative	ūvulā	ūvulīs
Vocative	ūvula	ūvulae

Descendants

Descendants of uvula in other languages

• → English: uvula
• → French: uvula, uvule
• Italian: ugola
• → Malay: uvula
• Sicilian: ùvula

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Malay

Etymology

From Late Latin ūvula (“little grape”), diminutive of Latin ūva (“grape”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /uvula/

Noun

uvula (Jawi spelling اوۏولا‎, plural uvula-uvula, informal 1st possessive uvulaku, 2nd possessive uvulamu, 3rd possessive uvulanya)

1. (anatomy) Uvula (appendage that hangs from the palate)

Synonyms

• anak lidah
• anak tekak