"cerumen" meaning in English

See cerumen in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /səˈɹuːmɛn/, /səˈɹuːmən/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cerumen.wav [Southern-England]
Rhymes: -uːmɛn, -uːmən Etymology: From Medieval Latin caerūmen, from cera + -men. The appearance of the u is unexplained, but may have been influenced by words like albūmen and bitūmen. Etymology templates: {{der|en|la-med|caerūmen}} Medieval Latin caerūmen, {{af|la|cera|-men|nocat=1}} cera + -men Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} cerumen (uncountable)
  1. Earwax. Tags: uncountable Synonyms: wax Derived forms: cerumenolysis, cerumenolytic, ceruminal, ceruminous
    Sense id: en-cerumen-en-noun-7Rh8ZegF Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 4 entries, Pages with entries, Bodily fluids

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "la-med",
        "3": "caerūmen"
      },
      "expansion": "Medieval Latin caerūmen",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "la",
        "2": "cera",
        "3": "-men",
        "nocat": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "cera + -men",
      "name": "af"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Medieval Latin caerūmen, from cera + -men. The appearance of the u is unexplained, but may have been influenced by words like albūmen and bitūmen.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "cerumen (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 4 entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Bodily fluids",
          "orig": "en:Bodily fluids",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "cerumenolysis"
        },
        {
          "word": "cerumenolytic"
        },
        {
          "word": "ceruminal"
        },
        {
          "word": "ceruminous"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Earwax."
      ],
      "id": "en-cerumen-en-noun-7Rh8ZegF",
      "links": [
        [
          "Earwax",
          "earwax"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "wax"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/səˈɹuːmɛn/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/səˈɹuːmən/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cerumen.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/89/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-cerumen.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-cerumen.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/89/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-cerumen.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-cerumen.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-uːmɛn"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-uːmən"
    }
  ],
  "word": "cerumen"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "cerumenolysis"
    },
    {
      "word": "cerumenolytic"
    },
    {
      "word": "ceruminal"
    },
    {
      "word": "ceruminous"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "la-med",
        "3": "caerūmen"
      },
      "expansion": "Medieval Latin caerūmen",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "la",
        "2": "cera",
        "3": "-men",
        "nocat": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "cera + -men",
      "name": "af"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Medieval Latin caerūmen, from cera + -men. The appearance of the u is unexplained, but may have been influenced by words like albūmen and bitūmen.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "cerumen (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms derived from Medieval Latin",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Pages with 4 entries",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Rhymes:English/uːmən",
        "Rhymes:English/uːmən/3 syllables",
        "Rhymes:English/uːmɛn",
        "Rhymes:English/uːmɛn/3 syllables",
        "en:Bodily fluids"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Earwax."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Earwax",
          "earwax"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "wax"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/səˈɹuːmɛn/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/səˈɹuːmən/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cerumen.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/89/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-cerumen.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-cerumen.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/89/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-cerumen.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-cerumen.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-uːmɛn"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-uːmən"
    }
  ],
  "word": "cerumen"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-08-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-08-05 using wiktextract (872fc7b and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.