raphe
/ˈɹeɪ.fi/noun
raphe is a noun meaning “A seamlike ridge or furrow on an organ, bodily tissue, or other structure, typically marking the line where two halves or sections fused in the embryo” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-A-P-H-E, and it appears about once in every 15 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of raphe is raphae or raphes.
What does raphe mean?
noun
- 1
A seamlike ridge or furrow on an organ, bodily tissue, or other structure, typically marking the line where two halves or sections fused in the embryo.
- 2
The connecting ridge between the two halves of the medulla oblongata or the tegmentum of the midbrain.
- 3
The part of the stalk of an anatropous ovary that is united in growth to the outside covering and forms a ridge along the body of the ovule.
- 4
A longitudinal median groove in the valve of many diatoms.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce raphe?
- /ˈɹeɪ.fi/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-raphe.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of raphe
- raphae plural
- raphes plural
- rhaphe
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is raphe?
Raphe appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 115,751st 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).
Raphe in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense Translations:
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 raphe come from?
Borrowed from New Latin raphē, from Ancient Greek ῥᾰφή (rhăphḗ, “seam; suture”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).