orifice

From Middle French, from Old French, from Late Latin ōrificium (“an opening, literally the making of a mouth”), compound of ōs (“mouth”) + faciō (“to make”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɒɹɪfɪs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɔɹəfɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

orifice (plural orifices)

1. A mouth or aperture, such as of a tube, pipe, etc.; an opening.

   the orifice of an artery or vein; the orifice of a wound; he entered the cave's gaping orifice

   • 2015 October 22, “Diversity and Systematics of Schizomavella Species (Bryozoa: Bitectiporidae) from the Bathyal NE Atlantic”, in PLOS ONE‎^[1], →DOI:

     As none of the ovicells were observed to be closed by the operculum, presumably because they were empty and the opercula were resting on the primary orifice rim, the ovicell closure type is subcleithral rather than cleithral [51 ], at least in some species of the genus.

2. One of the natural external openings of the human or animal body.

   the vagina and other orifices

   • 1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 121:

     The maw-worm could emerge unexpectedly from any orifice, including, most alarmingly, the corner of people's eyes.

   • 2004, Diana T. Meyers, Being Yourself: Essays on Identity, Action, and Social Life, page 86:

     For example, cultures that scorn open orifices of all kinds despise uninfibulated female genitals too […]

3. (slang, derogatory) A stupid or objectionable person.
   • 2016, Niels Saunders, Mervyn Vs. Dennis:

     “Peanuts aren't nuts, you orifice. They're legumes.”

• (stupid or objectionable person): Tony Thorne (2014), “orifice”, in Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, 4th edition, London;  […]: Bloomsbury

From Late Latin ōrificium.

• IPA^(key): /ɔ.ʁi.fis/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -is

orifice m (plural orifices)

1. orifice

• “orifice”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012