Meatus
title: "Meatus" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["animal-anatomy"] topic_path: "science/biology" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meatus" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
In anatomy, a meatus (, , : meatus or meatuses) is a natural body opening or canal.
Meatus may refer to:
- the external acoustic meatus, the opening of the ear canal
- the internal auditory meatus, a canal in the temporal bone of the skull
- the urinary meatus, which is the opening of the urethra, situated on the glans penis in males and in the vulval vestibule in females
- one of three nasal meatuses: the superior meatus, middle meatus and inferior meatus; each are passages through the nasal cavity within the skull
(The plural forms of "meatus" are: meatus, as a Latin form (of the fourth declension noun class, which the word belongs to); or meatuses, as a normally derived English plural; or often, and incorrectly, meati, by false analogy with the very common Latin -us/-i forms (such as alumnus/alumni), i.e., the second declension noun class.)
References
References
- ''[[OED]]'' 2nd edition, 1989, as {{IPA. /miːˈeɪtəs/.
- [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meatus Entry "meatus" in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary].
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