frenulum
/ˈfrɛn.jəl.əm/noun
frenulum is a noun meaning “A small fold or ridge of tissue that supports or restrains the motion of the part to which it is attached, in particular a fold of skin beneath the…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-R-E-N-U-L-U-M and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 14 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of frenulum is frenula or frenulums.
What does frenulum mean?
noun
- 1
A small fold or ridge of tissue that supports or restrains the motion of the part to which it is attached, in particular a fold of skin beneath the tongue, or between the lip and the gum.
Humans have three oral frenulums: beneath the tongue, between the upper lip and gum, and between the lower lip and gum.
- 2
Such a ridge of tissue connecting the foreskin to the glans on the underside of the penis; the penile frenulum.
- 3
A bristle or row of bristles on the edge of the hindwings of some lepidoptera which unites the wings by interlocking with a catch on the posterior part of the forewings.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce frenulum?
- UK /ˈfriː.njʊl.əm/
- US /ˈfrɛn.jəl.əm/
Frenulum has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-frenulum.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of frenulum
- frenula plural
- frenulums plural
- fraenulum hypercorrect
- frænulum hypercorrect
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is frenulum?
Frenulum appears about once in every 14 million words in written English, the 114,361st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Frenulum in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense small fold of tissue:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | frein, filet |
| German | Frenulum, some of them are also called Bändchen, most of them have specific compounds |
| Portuguese | freio, frénulo |
| Spanish | frenillo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does frenulum come from?
Borrowed from New Latin frēnulum, diminutive of frēnum (“a bridle, curb, bit”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).