fauces

English

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Etymology

Borrowing from Latin faucēs (“the upper part of a throat”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔː.siːz/

Noun

fauces pl (normally plural, singular faux)

1. (anatomy) The narrow passage from the mouth to the pharynx, situated between the soft palate and the base of the tongue.
2. (botany) The throat of a calyx, corolla, etc.
3. (zoology) That portion of the interior of a spiral shell which can be seen by looking into the aperture.
   • 1826, Mary Anne Venning, Rudiments of Conchology, page 94:

     There are two orange-coloured spots at the fauces of that Cypræa Isabella, whence its name, orange-tip.

   • 1872, American Journal of Conchology, volume 7, page 226:

     Even at that early age the lamella in the fauces may be distinctly traced through the translucent shell.

   • 1993, Recovery Plan for the Oʻahu Tree Snails of the Genus Achatinella, page 14:

     The tubercle is the same color but with white fauces. The glossy shell coloring is extremely various; the background is white, yellow or black, with or without longitudinal zigzag lines, transverse bands or blotches covering the surface.

Translations

passage from the mouth to the pharynx

Bulgarian: гърло (bg) n (gǎrlo), глътка (bg) f (glǎtka) Chinese: Mandarin: 咽門 / 咽门 (yānmén) Finnish: nielu (fi) Middle English: cheke

References

• Raija Hurme, Maritta Pesonen, Olli Syväoja, editors (1993), Englanti-Suomi suursanakirja, 4th edition, →ISBN, page 426
• Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language. New York: Portland House, 1989. →ISBN.
• “fauces”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “fauces”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “fauces”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)