radula

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a ribbonlike feeding organ bearing rows of tiny teeth, used by most mollusks to scrape or cut food

   The snail drew its radula across the algae coating the stone.

A modern scientific borrowing from Latin radula ('scraper'), formed from radere ('to scrape'). The name describes the organ's rows of minute teeth, which work like a rasp as a mollusk feeds.

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