Alveolate

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having a structural design that includes small, interconnected spaces or cavities within a greater framework
2. Pertaining to a configuration that incorporates numerous tiny chambers or compartments, similar to a honeycomb
3. Characterized by a structure marked with many small, hollow pockets arranged in a network

Etymology: "Alveolate" describes something pitted with small cavities, like a honeycomb, and its root is the Latin "alveus," meaning a hollow or trough. The Latin diminutive "alveolus" meant a little hollow, and the adjective "alveolatus" was built from it to mean having such hollows. English borrowed the word directly from that Latin adjective, so the sense of a surface divided into neat cells has stayed close to its original meaning. The same root gives English a surprising range of terms. Anatomists use "alveolar" for the sockets that hold the teeth in the jaw, and the air sacs of the lungs are called alveoli for the same reason: each is a small cup-shaped hollow. Biologists also drew on the Latin form when naming a major group of single-celled organisms, the Alveolata, whose members are characterised by tiny sac-like structures just beneath the cell membrane. That scientific name is a separate coinage, but it grew from the same hollow-shaped image.