noun

• 1Anatomy Zoology Botany
  A small rounded projection or protuberance, especially on a bone or on the surface of an animal or plant.

  ‘The blood supply of the scaphoid comes from the radial artery, feeding the bone on the dorsal surface near the tubercle and scaphoid waist.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Its fibers pass dorsally from an extensive anterior attachment to insert on the pharyngeal raphe, the pharyngeal tubercle of the occipital bone.’
  • ‘A terminal segment includes a tubercle that projects dorsally and an anus.’
  • ‘The tubercles have rounded surface and irregular shape.’
  • ‘In the male, the genital tubercle is located adjacent to and caudal to the umbilicus, whereas the genital tubercle in the female is located just ventral to the tail.’

• 2Medicine
  A small nodular lesion in the lungs or other tissues, characteristic of tuberculosis.

  ‘When this happens, the bacteria become encapsulated in tiny tubercles (round lesions) usually in the lungs which may be seen on a chest X-ray.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Responding to the invasion, macrophages may huddle with other immune cells to form little nodules called granulomas, or tubercles.’
  • ‘Tuberculoma is a mass of granulation tissue made up of a conglomeration of microscopic small tubercles.’
  • ‘Even on the bare question of the presence or absence of tubercle in a lung it often fails us; on questions of the age, extent, distribution and histological character of the tuberculous lesions it can tell us little.’
  • ‘The disease causes these tubercles to become yellow and spongy and coughing fits causes them to be spat out by the sufferer.’