membrane

CEFRB2

/ˈmɛm.bɹeɪn/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A thin layer of material that covers or separates parts.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A flexible enclosing or separating tissue forming a plane or film and separating two environments.

Examples

  • Reverse osmosis consists in forcing seawater through a membrane that filters out the salt.

  • The doctor has taken a swab from the mucous membrane.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
2

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A mechanical, thin, flat flexible part that can deform or vibrate when excited by an external force.

  2. A flexible or semiflexible covering or waterproofing whose primary function is to exclude water.

  3. A microscopic double layer of lipids and proteins forming the boundary of cells or organelles.

More examples

In context

  • The mucous membrane is very sensitive.

  • Then they backed the membrane with a gel matrix containing a perfluorocarbon (PFC) propellant and fluorescent "nanobullets" about a micron wide, and hit it with ultrasound.

  • The animal was breathing oxygen that permeated from the water through panels of membrane while carbon dioxide and other unwanted gases moved in the opposite direction—from the animal's enclosed atmosphere into the water.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

In biology class, we learned that the cell blank controls what enters and exits the cell.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Late Middle English, borrowed from Latin membrāna (“skin or membrane that covers parts of the body”), from membrum (“a limb or member of the body”) + -āna. Doublet of membrana.