Skip to the word

Added 10 October 2026

placenta

/pləˈsɛntə/ noun

Latin root: placenta Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about placenta at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

That part of the ovary of a flowering plant where the ovules form.
The vascular structure in the uterus of most mammals providing oxygen and nutrients for and transferring wastes from the developing fetus.

Origin

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.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Back to today's word