cartilaginous

adjective

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car·ti·lag·i·nous | \ ˌkär-tə-ˈla-jə-nəs

Definition of cartilaginous

: composed of, relating to, or resembling cartilage The external nose has a cartilaginous framework.

Examples of cartilaginous in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The cartilaginous ridges, troughs and protuberances of the outer ear also alter sound before it is transduced into nerve signals. — The Economist, "Sound engineers have better ways to trick listeners’ ears," 16 Dec. 2020 Strips of black fungus trailed out of the meatballs, giving them a cartilaginous crunch. — Soleil Ho, SFChronicle.com, "S.F.’s dorky new Viet pop-up is home-cooking nostalgia at its caramel-braised best," 10 Dec. 2020 Those sandwiches, with their rib-sticking meatiness and gentle cartilaginous crunch, fed the Freedom Riders, fed blues musicians, and have been feeding this neighborhood ever since. — Matt Goulding, The Atlantic, "Our Weird Restaurant Future," 19 June 2020 That excess was absorbed into the ocean and taken up by everything in the food web—including cartilaginous whale shark skeletons. — National Geographic, "See the Full Archive," 6 Apr. 2020 Beneath their main tongue is a piece of cartilaginous flesh that's thought to aid grooming. — National Geographic, "Bush babies," 19 Nov. 2019 Joining sharks and rays in the elasmobranch clan, sawfish are built over a cartilaginous frame that works in concert with a low profile and flat belly to allow efficient movement through whisper-thin depths. — David A. Brown, Field & Stream, "The Fight to Save the Sawfish," 13 Dec. 2019 Enter the panda’s pseudo-thumb, which is also composed of an enlarged radial sesamoid and cartilaginous extension, and is controlled by the same three muscles as in the aye-aye. — National Geographic, "This bizarre primate has a newly discovered digit," 21 Oct. 2019 Many of these cartilaginous swimmers eat fish, crustaceans, mollusks, plankton, krill, marine mammals, and other sharks—in short, humans are not on the menu. — Elaina Zachos, National Geographic, "Why are we afraid of sharks? There's a scientific explanation.," 27 June 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cartilaginous.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.