septum

• saeptum, sæptum (obsolete)

Borrowed from Latin sēptum (“enclosure, wall, fence”).

• (UK, US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛp.təm/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈsep.təm/
• Rhymes: -ɛptəm

septum (plural septa or septums)

1. (biology) A wall separating two cavities; a partition.

   Synonym: dissepiment

   1. (anatomy) Ellipsis of nasal septum: the cartilaginous center wall of the nose separating the two nostrils.
      • 2002, Springhouse, Illustrated Manual of Nursing Practice, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, page 1158:

        Deviated septum, a shift from the midline that commonly occurs in normal growth, is present in most adults.

      • 2008, Neil Cicierega (lyrics and music), “Modify”, in View-Monster, performed by Lemon Demon:

        Sally got a dagger hung from her septum
        O'Malley cut his ears off, but wishes that he kept 'em

   2. (anatomy) Either of the two walls that separate the atria or ventricles of the heart into left and right chambers.
   3. (botany) A partition that separates the cells of a fruit.
   4. (mycology) A partition that separates the cells of a (septated) fungus.
   5. (zoology) One of the radial calcareous plates of a coral.
   6. (zoology) One of the transverse partitions dividing the shell of a mollusk, or of a rhizopod, into several chambers.
   7. (zoology) One of the transverse partitions dividing the body cavity of an annelid.
2. (colloquial) Ellipsis of septum ring or septum piercing.

   Look, I got a new septum!

• nasal septum
• interventricular septum
• septum pellucidum

• “septum”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “septum”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• spetum

septum m (plural septums)

1. (biology) septum

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

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈseːp.tum/, [ˈs̠eːpt̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈsep.tum/, [ˈsɛpt̪um]

sēptum n (genitive sēptī); second declension

1. Alternative form of saeptum.

• → English: septum

Unadapted borrowing from English septum.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsebtum/ [ˈseβ̞.t̪ũm]
• Rhymes: -ebtum
• Syllabification: sep‧tum

septum m (plural septums)

1. septum (septum ring or septum piercing)

• According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.