acro-, acr-

Pertaining to the outermost parts of the limbs: The acroteric regions of the body can be the tips of the digits, or toes and fingers, or the tip of the nose.

Relating to a pedestal in architecture: When Ruth went up the stairs she noticed the fancy acroterions that formed the corners of the balustrade and which held beautiful statuettes.

1. One of the small pedestals placed on the top of a gable in Gothic architecture: While wandering around the old city, the couple noticed and admired the acroteria at the apexes of the pediments of the edifices which were supporting lovely statues.
2. An ornament or statue placed on top of a pedestal: Many of the old acroteria had broken arms or legs and the noses were often missing.

1. Pertaining to the absence or weakness of the pulse; pulseless: When Mary checked her heart beat, she was happy to feel her pulse, so she didn't have an acrotic condition as she had thought!
2. Pertaining to the surface of the body: When Dr. Black checked the acrotic skin parts of Susan's body, she didn't see any unusual developments of moles or birth marks.

Absence or imperceptibility of the pulse:; pulslessness: When Jack's father suddenly fainted, the paramedics had to check him for injuries, acrotism, and consciousness.

When acrotism had been confirmed of the murdered person at the scene of the crime, a medical examiner had to continue examinations of the corpse to find out what injuries led to the victim's death..

In mineralogy, referring to a rock having a cleavage parallel with the base.or with the top: While trying to classify some stones, June found one that was acrotomous and wrote down a description of it in her notebook for later use.

In zoology, concerning viteilligenous substances in cells which are grouped at the apex of the follicular tube: Acrotrophic cells refer to the ovariola of insects and are supposed to add nutrition to the developing ova.

Pain, sensory loss, paresthesia, and trophic changes affecting the distal extremities: Acrontrophodynia usually affects the feet and can be a result of prolonged exposure of the limbs to cold and moisture:

A trophoneurotic disturbance of the extremities: Acrotrophoneurosis is a trophic disorder of the legs or arms resulting from a disease or injury to the nerves that revitalize the area.

Acrotrophoneurosis is any trophic disorder caused by a defective function of the nerves concerned with nutrition of that part.

The continued growth of a plant in the same direction in which it originally started: Mr. Clark, Jim's biology teacher, told the class that they should watch a plant for weeks and see if acrotropism was the method of its development and, in addition, to take photos to document their research.

An air letter of very lightweight paper: Sandy wanted to send her mother an aerogram which she found out was only one piece of thin paper to be folded forming its own envelope and which could be sent at a low postage rate.

1. A word, formed from the first letters of a group of words, of which most people are unaware of what the original meaning of the word is, such as "laser" and "radar": The computer term "URL" (Uniform Resource Locator) is used on the internet as a website address, which has become an anacronym because very few people know what the letters stand for.
2. Etymology: said to be a combination of parts of the words anachronistic and acronym.

The alteration of a word which already exists and creating a phrase, usually humorous, using the letters of the word as initials, and so the process is the opposite of producing an acronym: An example of the bacronym SURFSIDE is Small Unified Reactor Facility with Systems for Isotopes, Desalting, and Electricity.

Another example of a bacronym is BANANA, or "Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody", and GOD, or "Guaranteed Overnight Delivery".

Enlargement or the thickening of the extremities: Russel learned that the obsolete term pachyacria referred to the swelling or puffiness of the the soft tissues of the skin of the legs or arms.

In geometry, a solid having many vertices or solid angles; a polyhedron: The glass object that Mr. Smart had on his desk possessed plane polygons that were positioned in a way that each side was common to two.