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Glite Dictionary
🍂 Losing leaves yearly 🦷 Falling off naturally
deciduous

deciduous

1 6.7
Teeth or antlers that fall out at a certain stage of life
  • adjective
  • /dɪˈsɪdʒuəs/
translation icon : deciduo
  • This study considered only deciduous teeth.
  • deciduous teeth

Examples

  • The dentist explained that deciduous teeth are crucial for a child's development.

  • Most kids have a total of 20 deciduous teeth before they start losing them.

  • By the age of three, a child typically has all of their deciduous teeth in place.

Antonyms

permanent
650 3.2

Continuing for a long time and unlikely to change

Compounds

deciduous forest
1 3.9

A forest of trees that lose their leaves every year, like oak and maple

deciduous tooth
  • Specialized
1 3.3

A child's baby tooth that falls out and is replaced by an adult tooth

deciduous holly
  • US
8.2

A North American tree that loses its leaves in winter and has bright red berries

deciduous plant
4.8

A plant that loses its leaves each year in autumn

Surface Forms

deciduous positive

Morphology

deciduous = decidu + ous

The component 'decidu-' (meaning 'falling off') is a Latin combining form rather than a recognizable English base, so the sense 'shed at a stage of development' is not transparently derivable by average learners.

Etymology

The word deciduous comes from the Latin parts de- 'off' and cadere 'to fall'. So it simply means something that 'falls off' at a certain time, like baby teeth or antlers that are shed and then replaced.