(plāt )

[Fr. plate, something flat]

1. A thin, flattened part or portion, such as a flattened process of a bone. SYN: lamella; lamina.
2. A full denture. The term is not considered correct.
3. A shallow covered dish for culturing microorganisms.
4. To inoculate and culture microorganisms in a culture plate.

alar p.In the embryo, the posterior (upper) half of the neural tube (above the sulcus limitans). SYN: alar lamina of neural tube.

auditory p.The bony roof of the external auditory meatus.

axial p.The primitive streak of the embryo.

belay p.In mountaineering, a metal plate that has one or more slots in it, designed to weave a rope through, to create friction with a carabiner.

bite p.In dentistry, a plate made of some suitable plastic material into which the patient bites in order to have a record of the relationship between the upper and lower jaws. The device may be reinforced with wire and used as a splint in the mouth or to treat temporomand ibular joint difficulties. SYN: interocclusal record; occlusal template.

bone p.A flat, round or oval decalcified bone or metal disk, employed in pairs, used in approximation.

chorionic p.The fetal surface of the placenta.

cortical p.The compact layers of bone forming the surfaces of the alveolar processes of the mand ible and maxilla.

cribriform p.1The thin, perforated medial portion of the horizontal plate of the ethmoid bone.2Alveolar bone.

deck p.The roof plate of the embryonic neural tube.

dental p.A denture base of metal or acrylic material that rests on the oral mucosa and to which artificial teeth are attached. By extension, the term is incorrectly used for the complete denture.

dorsal p.One of two prominences of the notochord in the embryo.

epiphyseal p.The thin layer of cartilage between the epiphysis and the shaft of a bone. Growth in length of the bone occurs at this layer. SYN: growth plate.

SEE: illus.

equatorial p.The platelike mass of chromosomes at the equator of the spindle in cell division.

floor p.In the embryonic neural tube, the wedge of cells in the ventral midline. These cells are primitive radial glia and do not give rise to neurons. The ventral commissures and decussations eventually develop through this structure.SYN: ventral plate.

force p.A flat, floor-mounted instrument, similar to a scale, for determining weight-bearing loads and biomechanical forces placed on the foot during walking or running. It is used to detect subtle body movements in order to identify postural deficits, or to develop (in athletes or people with balance disorders) more fluid and safer coordination and locomotion.

growth p.Epiphyseal plate.

image p.A photostimulable image detector used in computed tomography in place of x-ray cassettes. It gathers the energy from x-ray photons on a layer of phosphor that can repeatedly store and release information in digitized form for enhancement, recording, and image display.

medullary p.The central portion of the ectoderm in the embryo developing into the neural canal.

muscle p.In the somite, the myotome from which the striated muscles are formed.

neural p.A thickened band of ectoderm along the dorsal surface of an embryo. The nervous system develops from this tissue.

palate p.The part of the palatine bone forming the posterior part of the roof of the mouth.

polar p.In some cells, the flattened platelike bodies seen at the end of the spindle during mitosis.

pterygoid p.Either of a pair of thin, bony processes, the medial (internal) and lateral (external), on each side of and arising from the sphenoid bone. They serve to bound the infratemporal fossa and give origin to muscles of mastication.

pusher p.A device that moves fluids in a specific direction.

tarsal p.The dense connective tissue structure that supports the eyelid. It was formerly called tarsal cartilage; however, it is not true cartilage.

tympanic p.The bony plate between the anterior wall of the external auditory meatus and the tympanum.

ventral p.Floor plate.