Scrabble Bingo of the Day: FOVEOLET

FOVEOLET  n pl. -S  a foveola

64 points (14 points without the bingo)

So, if a foveolet is a foveola, what's a foveola? It's a small fovea. Okay… what's a fovea? It's a shallow anatomical depression, which is basically a small pit or cuplike indentation in a bone or bodily organ. Though it can appear in any bone or organ, it's most commonly used to indicate the central fovea of the human retina, located in the macula, which is a yellowish, cone photo receptor that's responsible for sharp vision.

The fovea is the region in the human eye that has the potential to have the highest visual acuity.

The image above shows the foveola in the anatomical dimensions of the retina of the right eye (viewed through the pupil) and the corresponding right eye visual field (viewed from the pupil).

Synonyms

FOVEOLE  n pl. -S  a foveola
FOVEOLA  n pl. -LAS or -LAE  a small fovea  FOVEOLAR adj

The above image shows the cross-section of the fovea.

Related Words

FOVEA  n pl. -VEAS or -VEAE  a shallow anatomical depression  FOVEAL, FOVEATE(D) adj
FOSSA  n pl. -SAE  an anatomical depression  FOSSATE adj
FOSSETTE  n pl. -S  a small fossa
PIT  v PITTED, PITTING, PITS  to mark with cavities or depressions
VALLECULA  n pl. -LAE  an anatomical groove, channel, or depression
FOLLICLE  n pl. -S  a small body cavity
HILUS  n pl. HILI  hilum
HILUM  n pl. HILA  a small opening in a bodily organ
CAVITY  n pl. -TIES  an unfilled space within a mass  CAVITIED adj
MACULA  n pl. -LAS or -LAE  a spot  MACULAR adj
MACULATE  v -LATED, -LATING, -LATES  to mark with spots

The above image shows the ophthalmological view of a normal retina including the fovea (asterisk) and the optic nerve head ("blind spot," delineated by the dashed white line).

Images by Palomar College, Neuron Research, psywww, PNAS

What's a Scrabble Bingo?

A bingo is when a player empties his or her rack in one turn, placing all seven of their letters on the board to create a word that's at least seven letters long. The term "bingo" is used primarily in the U.S., but elsewhere it's simply known as a "bonus" because you get a bonus of 50 points added to your turn's score. "Scrabble Bingo of the Day" will focus on these high scoring plays, teaching you some interesting and possibly unusual seven-letter or longer words accepted in a game of Scrabble.

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