Pith definition

pĭth
piths
See word origin
Frequency:
The essential or central part; the heart or essence.

The pith of your argument is controversial.

noun
3
2
Strength; vigor; mettle.
noun
2
1
Significance; importance.

Matters of great pith.

noun
1
0
To extract the pith from (a plant stem or tree).
verb
1
0
Pith is soft and spongy material in plant stems and the core of animal bones, or the white tissue lining the rind of an orange, lemon or other citrus fruit.

An example of pith is the spongy material found inside plant stems.

noun
0
0
Advertisement
The soft, spongy tissue in the center of the stems of most vascular plants, consisting mainly of parenchyma.
noun
0
0
The soft inner substance of a feather or hair.
noun
0
0
The spinal cord.
noun
0
0
To remove the pith from (a plant stem).
verb
0
0
To sever or destroy the spinal cord of, usually by inserting a needle into the vertebral canal.
verb
0
0
Advertisement
To kill (cattle) by cutting the spinal cord.
verb
0
0
The soft, spongy tissue in the center of certain plant stems.
noun
0
0
The soft core of various other things, as of a bone or feather.
noun
0
0
The spongy, fibrous tissue lining the rind and surrounding the sections of an orange, grapefruit, etc.
noun
0
0
The essential part; substance; gist.
noun
0
0
Advertisement
Importance.
noun
0
0
(archaic) Strength; vigor; force.
noun
0
0
To remove the pith from (a plant stem)
verb
0
0
To pierce or sever the spinal cord of (an animal) in order to kill it or make it insensible for experimental purposes.
verb
0
0
The soft inner substance of a feather or hair.
noun
0
0
Advertisement
The spinal cord.
noun
0
0
To sever or destroy the spinal cord of, usually by inserting a needle into the vertebral canal.
verb
0
0
The soft, spongy tissue in the center of the stems of most flowering plants, gymnosperms, and ferns. Pith is composed of parenchyma cells. In plants that undergo secondary growth, such as angiosperms, the pith is surrounded by the vascular tissues and is gradually compressed by the inward growth of the vascular tissue known as xylem. In plants with woody stems, the pith dries out and often disintegrates as the plant grows older, leaving the stem hollow.
noun
0
0
To remove the pith from a plant stem.
verb
0
0
To sever or destroy the spinal cord of an animal for the purpose of dissecting it, usually by inserting a needle into the spinal canal.
verb
0
0
Advertisement
The soft spongy substance in the center of the stems of many plants and trees.
noun
0
0
The spongy interior substance of a feather.
noun
0
0
The spinal cord; the marrow.
noun
0
0
(figuratively) The essential or vital part.

The pith of my idea is truth.

noun
0
0
To kill (especially cattle or laboratory animals) by cutting or piercing the spinal cord.
verb
0
0
Advertisement

Origin of pith

  • Middle English from Old English pitha

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

  • 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

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.

  • The sudden termination of the secondary tracheids against the pith-cells may afford evidence of root-structure as distinct from stem-structure, in which the radial rows of secondary tracheids pass into the irregularly-arranged primary elements next the pith.

  • It is here, at the Heribert present epoch and for the next two centuries, that the and the pith and nerve of the Italian nation must be sought; Lombard and among the burghs of Lombardy, Milan, the eldest burghs.

  • In the majority of ferns, at a higher level, after the stele has increased greatly in diameter, a large-celled true pith or medulla, resembling the cortex in its characters, and quite distinct from conjunctive, from which it is separated by an internal endodernlis, appears in the centre.

  • To this type of steIn having a ground-tissue pith, whether with or without internal phloem, is given the name siphonostele to distinguish it from the solid haplostele characteristic of the root, the first-formed portion of the stem, and in the more primitive Pteridophytes, of the whole of the axis.

More sentences

Related articles

Also Mentioned In

Words near pith in the Dictionary