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acephalous

Definition of acephalous

adjective

  • 1lacking a head: an acephalous skeleton
  • 2having no leader or chief:an acephalous society
  • 3 Prosody (typically of a hexameter beginning with a short syllable) lacking a syllable or syllables in the first foot.

Origin:

mid 18th century: via medieval Latin from Greek akephalos 'headless' (from a- 'without' + kephalē 'head') + -ous

acephalous in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of acephalous in the US English dictionary
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