diastema

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a gap between adjacent teeth, especially between the upper front incisors

   The portrait clearly shows a diastema between the sitter's front teeth.

2. 2
   noun

   a broad toothless space between groups of teeth in some mammals

   The rodent's diastema separates its incisors from its cheek teeth.

From New Latin diastema and Late Latin diastema, 'interval,' from Greek diastema, 'space or interval,' based on diistanai, 'to set apart.' Anatomists adopted the general word for an interval as a precise term for a gap in a tooth row.

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