orifice

English

Etymology

From Middle French, from Old French, from Late Latin orificium (“an opening, literally the making of a mouth”), compound of os (“mouth”) + facio (“to make”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɒɹɪfɪs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɔɹəfɪs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

orifice (plural orifices)

1. A mouth or aperture, such as of a tube, pipe, etc.; an opening.

   the orifice of an artery or vein; the orifice of a wound; the vagina and other orifices

2. (slang, derogatory) A stupid or objectionable person.
   • 2016, Niels Saunders, Mervyn Vs. Dennis:

     “Peanuts aren't nuts, you orifice. They're legumes.”

Translations

mouth or aperture, as of a tube, pipe

• Armenian: բացվածք (hy) (bacʻvackʻ), անցք (hy) (ancʻkʻ), ծակ (hy) (cak)
• Bulgarian: отвор (bg) m (otvor), отверстие (bg) n (otverstie), устие (bg) n (ustie), проход (bg) m (prohod), дюза (bg) f (djuza), жигльор (bg) m (žigljor), щуцер (bg) m (štucer)
• Catalan: orifici (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 孔 (zh) (kǒng), 口 (zh) (kǒu), 洞 (zh) (dòng), 開口／开口 (zh) (kāi kǒu)

• Danish: åbning c
• Faroese: op n, opilsi
• Finnish: aukko (fi), reikä (fi)
• French: orifice (fr) m
• German: Öffnung (de) f
• Icelandic: (an opening) op (is) n, (a mouth) munnur (is) m
• Indonesian: mulut (id)
• Irish: poll m, oscailt f, béal (ga) m
• Italian: orifizio (it) m, orificio m
• Japanese: 口 (ja) (くち, kuchi), 開口部 (かいこうぶ, kaikōbu), 孔 (ja) (あな, ana)
• Luxembourgish: Ëffnung f
• Macedonian: о́твор m (ótvor)
• Malay: mulut (ms)
• Malayalam: രന്ധ്രം (ml) (randhraṁ)
• Maori: wenewene (of a wound), pūaha, mānawanawa
• Portuguese: orifício (pt) m
• Russian: отве́рстие (ru) n (otvérstije)
• Scottish Gaelic: beul m, fosgladh m
• Spanish: orificio (es) m
• Swedish: öppning (sv) c, mynning (sv) c
• Tagalog: bukasan

orifice (see anus etc. for specific body cavities) — see hole

References

• (stupid or objectionable person): Tony Thorne (2014) “orifice”, in Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, 4th edition, London,  […]: Bloomsbury

French

Etymology

From Late Latin orificium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔ.ʁi.fis/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -is

Noun

orifice m (plural orifices)

1. an orifice

Further reading

• “orifice”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.