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Glite Dictionary
fourth stomach

fourth stomach

8.5
A last stomach compartment in animals like cows and sheep that digests food
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : cuarto estómago
  • Rennin is an enzyme extracted from the fourth stomach of young calves.

Examples

  • The fourth stomach of a cow, known as the abomasum, plays a key role in digestion.

  • Veterinary students studied the structure of the fourth stomach in sheep.

  • The cow's fourth stomach plays a crucial role in digestion.

  • Ruminants have a specialized fourth stomach for breaking down tough plant matter.

  • In cows, the fourth stomach is crucial for breaking down tough plant materials during digestion.

  • The fourth stomach of a sheep plays a significant role in fermenting and digesting grass.

  • During a field study, we learned how the fourth stomach of goats helps them efficiently process their food.

Synonyms

abomasum
vsfourth stomach
  • Specialized
1 9.9

The fourth and last stomach part in animals like cows and sheep where digestion happens

is the nontechnical descriptive phrase rather than a scientific name

Surface Forms

fourth stomach singular
fourth stomachs plural

Morphology

fourth + stomach

The meaning is directly and compositionally built from 'fourth' (an ordinal) + 'stomach' (the organ), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it denotes the stomach in position number four. This is a transparent, cross-linguistically common naming pattern, though full anatomical detail (that it refers to a ruminant compartment) requires domain knowledge.

Etymology

Fourth stomach comes from the fact that animals like cows and sheep have four stomach chambers, and the fourth one works like a true stomach. That last chamber, called the 'abomasum', is where most food is broken down, so the name points to the part that does the 'main digestion'.