Meaning & use
palmate
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Meanings
adjectivenot comparablebiologytechnical
Having several lobes or leaflets that spread out from one point, like the fingers of an open hand.
Grammar: Used before a noun in botany: a palmate leaf.
Patterns
- a palmate leaf
A maple leaf is palmate, with lobes that fan outward from the stem.
The horse chestnut has palmate leaves with five to seven leaflets.
Students sketched a palmate leaf to show the veins radiating from one point.
adjectivenot comparabletechnical
Shaped like a hand, or having webbing between the toes, as in some animals.
Grammar: Less common sense in biology: palmate antlers, palmate feet.
The moose has large palmate antlers.
Ducks have palmate feet that help them swim.
Common combinations
- palmate leaf
- The sycamore has a large palmate leaf.
- palmate venation
- Palmate venation means veins spread from a single point.
- palmate lobes
- The leaf has five palmate lobes.
- palmate antlers
- Fallow deer grow palmate antlers.
- palmately lobed
- The leaf is palmately lobed.
Synonyms and how they differ
- hand-shaped
- Hand-shaped is the everyday phrase, while palmate is the precise botanical term.
- digitate
- Digitate means having finger-like parts, usually leaflets all attached at one point, and is a narrower term than palmate.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: palmate or pinnate?
palmate vs pinnate
Pinnate leaves have leaflets arranged in rows along a central stalk like a feather, while palmate leaves fan from one point.
Practice
Which leaf is described as palmate?
Choose one answer.
Palmate means spreading from a single point like fingers. Leaflets along a stem are pinnate.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “palmate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.