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velum

/ˈviː.ləm/noun

velum is a noun meaning “The soft palate” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled V-E-L-U-M, and it appears about once in every 22 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of velum is vela or velums.

What does velum mean?

noun

  1. 1

    The soft palate.

  2. 2

    A thin membrane partially covering the cluster of sporangia near the leaf base in quillworts and their extinct relatives.

  3. 3

    A veil-like membrane of immature mushrooms extending from the margin of the cap to the stem and is torn by growth, to reveal the gills.

  4. 4

    A locomotory and feeding organ provided with cilia found in the larval stage of bivalves.

  5. 5

    An annular membrane, typically bordering a cavity, especially in certain molluscs, medusae, and other invertebrates.

  6. 6

    A delicate membrane found on certain protists.

  7. 7

    An accessory cloud resembling a veil extending over a large distance; normally associated with cumulus and cumulonimbus.

  8. 8

    a thin coating or film of mucus or phlegm.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce velum?

  • /ˈviː.ləm/
  • /ˈvɛl.əm/
  • /ˈveɪ.ləm/

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-velum.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-velum2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of velum

  • vela plural
  • velums plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is velum?

Velum appears about once in every 22 million words in written English, the 141,699th 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).

Where does velum come from?

Borrowed from Latin vēlum (“a cloth, covering, awning, curtain, veil”). Doublet of veil.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).