Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

placenta

/pləˈsɛntə/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.09 in modern English

Syllables
pla-cen-ta
IPA
/pləˈsɛntə/
12
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

An organ in most mammals during gestation that supplies food and oxygen to the foetus and passes back waste. It is on the wall of the uterus and links to the foetus through the umbilical cord. It is expelled after birth.

noun

In flowering plants, the part of the ovary where ovules develop; in non-flowering plants where the spores develop.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from New Latin placenta (literally “flat cake”), an ellipsis of phrases such as placenta uterī (literally “womb cake”) and placenta uterīna (literally “uterine cake”), because of the flat round shape of the afterbirth. Doublet of palacsinta and palatschinke.

Subject

Wiktionary places this term in Medicine.

Inflected Forms

placentae (plural) placentas (plural)

Derived Forms

placental placentary placentation placentiferous placentiform placentitis placentome pseudoplacenta subplacenta

Phrases

placenta cake placenta praevia placento-

Frequently Paired Words

amnion amnio- chorion chorio-

Synonyms

afterbirth clean glean trophosperm

Rhymes With

magenta penta renta amenta argenta tormenta polenta menta drenthe

Questions

How do you pronounce placenta?
The recorded pronunciation is /pləˈsɛntə/.
What does placenta mean?
An organ in most mammals during gestation that supplies food and oxygen to the foetus and passes back waste. It is on the wall of the uterus and links to the foetus through the umbilical cord. It is expelled after birth.
Where does placenta come from?
Learned borrowing from New Latin placenta (literally “flat cake”), an ellipsis of phrases such as placenta uterī (literally “womb cake”) and placenta uterīna (literally “uterine cake”), because of the flat round shape of the afterbirth. Doublet of palacsinta and palatschinke.

How to pronounce placenta

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “placenta”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/pləˈsɛntə/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “placenta”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “placenta” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.