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cap·il·lar·y (kăpə-lĕrē)
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adj.
1. Relating to or resembling a hair; fine and slender.
2. Having a very small internal diameter: a capillary tube.
3. Anatomy Of or relating to the capillaries.
4. Physics Of or relating to capillarity.
n. pl. cap·il·lar·ies
1. Anatomy One of the minute blood vessels that connect arterioles and venules. These blood vessels form an intricate network throughout the body for the interchange of various substances, such as oxygen and carbon dioxide, between blood and tissue cells.
2. A tube with a very small internal diameter.

[From Latin capillāris, from capillus, hair.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.