Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word palmate. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word palmate, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say palmate in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word palmate you have here. The definition of the word palmate will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofpalmate, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
(chiefly botany) Having three or more lobes or veins arising from a common point.
Although palmate leaves are typical of most Western maples, a number of species have leaves without lobes.
(botany, of leaves) Having more than three leaflets arising from a common point, often in the form of a fan.
1909, Eleanor Stockhouse Atkinson, “In the Tree Tops”, in The How and Why Library:
The horse chestnut, buckeye and hickory trees have palmate leaves. That is, the broad oval leaflets are all set around the tip of a common leaf stem, spreading in a circle, like the ribs of a palm leaf fan.
The Palmate Newt is a common Western European amphibian.
(rare)Hand-like; shaped like a hand with extended fingers
Usage notes
The word is rare outside of technical writing, and hardly ever qualifies things other than leaves.
A compound leaf with more than three leaflets (trifoliate) radiating from the same point is more usually called palmate or palmately compound to avoid ambiguity.
While "palmated" is a more usual term when referring to webbed appendages, "palmate" is often found in zoological nomenclature as the Latin term for both meanings is palmatus.
