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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

elytra

/ˈɛlɪtɹə/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:39
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What does elytra mean?

noun

  1. plural of elytron
  2. Rare, winglike, or elytriform, items that allow players in Minecraft to glide and fly.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ˈɛlɪtɹə/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

ELYTRA.—The hardened fore-wings of Beetles, serving as sheaths for the membranous hind-wings, which constitute the true organs of flight.
Charles DarwinThe Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th EditionProject Gutenberg ebook #2009
In Oryctes it is seated on the pro-pygidium; and, according to the same entomologist, in some other Dynastini, on the under surface of the elytra.
Charles DarwinThe Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to SexProject Gutenberg ebook #2300
More book examples (3)
"When one sees nipple on man's breast, one does not say some use, but sex not having been determined--so with useless wings under elytra of beetles--born from beetles with wings, and modified--if simple creation merely, would have been born without them."
Charles DarwinLife and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1Project Gutenberg ebook #2087
This case presents no difficulty on my view, for a hooked seed might be transported to an island by some other means; and the plant then becoming slightly modified, but still retaining its hooked seeds, would form an endemic species, having as useless an appendage as any rudimentary organ,—for instance, as the shrivelled wings under the soldered elytra of many insular beetles.
Charles DarwinOn the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for LifeProject Gutenberg ebook #1228
Rose-beetles pass, in snoring flight, on every hand, the gold and emerald of their elytra gleaming; now and again one of them alights for a moment on the flowering head of a thistle; he seizes it carefully with the tips of his nervous, pointed fingers, seems to caress it, speaks to it, and then suddenly restores it to freedom.
Georges Victor LegrosFabre, Poet of ScienceTranslated by Bernard MiallProject Gutenberg ebook #3489