ventricle

From French ventricule, from Latin ventriculus (“belly, stomach, ventricle”), diminutive of venter (“belly, stomach, womb”).

• enPR: vĕnʹtrĭ-kəl, IPA^(key): /ˈvɛntɹɪkəl/

ventricle (plural ventricles)

1. (anatomy, zoology) Any small cavity within a body; a hollow part or organ, especially:
   1. (anatomy) One of two lower chambers of the heart.
   2. (anatomy) One of four cavities in the brain.
   3. (archaic, anatomy, zoology) The stomach.
      • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 72:

        [On birds] "Where omitting the more general Properties, of having two Ventricles, and picking up stones to conveigh them into their second Ventricle, the Gizzern, (which provision and instinct is a supply for the want of teeth;) […] "

   4. (archaic) The womb.

      (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

• interventricular
• intraventricular
• ventricular
• ventriculus

• atrium

• ventricle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ventricle in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.