: one of the hard bony appendages that are borne on the jaws or in many of the lower vertebrates on other bones in the walls of the mouth or pharynx and serve especially for the prehension and mastication of food and as weapons of offense and defense
b
: any of various usually hard and sharp processes especially about the mouth of an invertebrate
2
: a projection resembling or suggesting the tooth of an animal in shape, arrangement, or action
a saw tooth
: such as
a
: any of the regular projections on the circumference or sometimes the face of a wheel that engage with corresponding projections on another wheel especially to transmit force : cog
b
: a small sharp-pointed marginal lobe or process on a plant
3
a
teeth plural: effective means of enforcement
drug laws with teeth
b
: something that injures, tortures, devours, or destroys
The dentist will have to pull that tooth.
You should brush your teeth every morning and night.
She clenched her teeth in anger.
He has a set of false teeth.
the teeth of a saw
The labor union showed that it has teeth.
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Ultimately, the mystery tooth was extracted, and Owens is now recovering.—Daniella Gray, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Aug. 2025 The sparkling jewelry piece consisted of diamonds on her lower teeth and two of her top teeth.—Escher Walcott, People.com, 4 Aug. 2025 Of the 36 samples of dental calculus scraped from ancient teeth, three samples – each from a different molar – had molecular signatures matching the team's reference (control) for betel nut.—New Atlas, 4 Aug. 2025 The punishing team-building restrictions that come about by crossing the new second apron have legitimate teeth.—Bryan Toporek, Forbes.com, 2 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for tooth
Word History
Etymology
Middle English, from Old English tōth; akin to Old High German zand tooth, Latin dent-, dens, Greek odont-, odous
First Known Use
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Time Traveler
The first known use of tooth was
before the 12th century
: any of the hard bony appendages that are borne on the jaws and serve especially for the prehension and mastication of food see milk tooth, permanent tooth
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