Speculum: Definition and part of speech

Speculum

  1. n. A bright and lustrous patch of color found on the wings of ducks and some other birds. It is usually situated on the distal portions of the secondary quills, and is much more brilliant in the adult male than in the female.
  2. pl. of Speculum
  3. n. A mirror, or looking-glass; especially, a metal mirror, as in Greek and Roman archaeology.
  4. n. A reflector of polished metal, especially one used in reflecting telescopes. See Speculum metal, below.
  5. n. An instrument for dilating certain passages of the body, and throwing light within them, thus facilitating examination or surgical operations.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.

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