cancellate

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   formed like an open lattice or network, especially of intersecting bars, plates, or bony struts

   The cancellate interior of the beak reduced its weight without removing all support.

2. 2
   adj

   marked by crossing raised lines or grooves that create a netlike pattern

   Under magnification, the shell showed a cancellate surface of intersecting ridges.

From Latin cancellatus, 'made like a lattice,' the past participle of cancellare, from cancelli, 'lattice bars.' Scientific English applies the lattice image to porous internal structures and crossing surface lines.

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