Pith Definition

pĭth
piths
noun
piths
The soft, spongy tissue in the center of certain plant stems.
Webster's New World
The soft core of various other things, as of a bone or feather.
Webster's New World
The spongy, fibrous tissue lining the rind and surrounding the sections of an orange, grapefruit, etc.
Webster's New World
The spinal cord.
American Heritage Medicine
The essential part; substance; gist.
Webster's New World
Synonyms:
verb
To remove the pith from (a plant stem).
American Heritage
To sever or destroy the spinal cord of, usually by inserting a needle into the vertebral canal.
American Heritage
To pierce or sever the spinal cord of (an animal) in order to kill it or make it insensible for experimental purposes.
Webster's New World

Origin of Pith

  • Old English piþa, from Proto-Germanic *piþan (compare West Frisian piid 'pulp, kernel', Dutch peen 'carrot', Low German Peddik 'pulp, core'), from earlier *piþō (oblique *pittan). Doublet of pit. The verb meaning "to kill by cutting or piercing the spinal cord" is attested 1805.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English from Old English pitha

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

Pith Sentence Examples

  • The secondary phloem contains numerous thick-walled fibres, parenchymatous cells, and large sieve-tubes with plates on the radial walls; swollen parenchymatous cells containing crystals are commonly met with in the cortex, pith and medullary-ray tissues.

  • When the pith is large celled, the xylems of the bundles are separated from it by a distinct layer of conjunctive tissue called the endocycle, and a similar layer, the pericycle, separates the phloem from the cortex.

  • The arrangement of the conducting tissue in the stem is characteristic; a transverse section of the very young stem shows a nunber of distinct conducting strands - vascular bundles - arranged in a ring round the pith; these soon become united to form a closed ring of bast and wood, separated by a layer of formative tissue (cambium).

  • The fruit is edible and its juice is made into beer; the sap of the tree is made into wine, and its pith into bread; the leaves furnish an excellent thatch, and the fibre extracted from their midribs is used f or fish lines, cordage, hammocks, nets, &c.; and the wood is hard and makes good building' material.

  • If a suspended gilt pith ball is held near it, the ball will first be attracted and then repelled.

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Words Starting With

PPIPIT

Words Ending With

HTHITH

Unscrambles

pith

Words Starting With P and Ending With H

Starts With P & Ends With HStarts With PI & Ends With HStarts With P & Ends With TH

Word Length

4 Letter Words4 Letter Words Starting With P4 Letter Words Ending With H