axil

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   in botany, the upper angle between a leaf, branch, or leafstalk and the stem or axis from which it grows

   A small bud had formed in the axil of each leaf.

Borrowed in the eighteenth century from New Latin axilla, from Latin axilla, 'armpit.' Botanists transferred the anatomical image to the armpit-like angle where a leaf or branch meets its supporting stem. Axil and axilla are doublets.

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