spiracle

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   zoology: an external respiratory opening in an insect or another air-breathing arthropod, connected to the tracheal system

   Air entered the grasshopper's tracheal system through each spiracle.

2. 2
   noun

   zoology: a small opening behind the eye of certain fishes through which water can enter the mouth and pass over the gills

   The ray drew water through its spiracle while resting on the seabed.

3. 3
   noun

   historical: the blowhole of a whale or another cetacean

   The older account called the whale's blowhole a spiracle.

From Latin spiraculum, 'air hole or breathing place,' from spirare, 'to breathe.' Zoologists applied the term to several respiratory openings that are not anatomically identical.

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