Scrabble Bingo of the Day: FOVEOLET

FOVEOLETn pl. -S  a foveola

64 points (14 points without the bingo)

So, if a foveolet is a foveola, what's a foveola? It's a small fovea. Okay… what's a fovea? It's a shallow anatomical depression, which is basically a small pit or cuplike indentation in a bone or bodily organ. Though it can appear in any bone or organ, it's most commonly used to indicate the central fovea of the human retina, located in the macula, which is a yellowish, cone photo receptor that's responsible for sharp vision.

The fovea is the region in the human eye that has the potential to have the highest visual acuity.

The image above shows the foveola in the anatomical dimensions of the retina of the right eye (viewed through the pupil) and the corresponding right eye visual field (viewed from the pupil).

Synonyms

FOVEOLEn pl. -S  a foveola

FOVEOLAn pl. -LAS or -LAE  a small fovea  FOVEOLARadj

The above image shows the cross-section of the fovea.

Related Words

FOVEAn pl. -VEAS or -VEAE  a shallow anatomical depression  FOVEAL, FOVEATE(D)adj

FOSSAn pl. -SAE  an anatomical depression  FOSSATEadj

FOSSETTEn pl. -S  a small fossa

PITvPITTED, PITTING, PITS  to mark with cavities or depressions

VALLECULAn pl. -LAE  an anatomical groove, channel, or depression

FOLLICLEn pl. -S  a small body cavity

HILUSn pl. HILI  hilum

HILUMn pl. HILA  a small opening in a bodily organ

CAVITYn pl. -TIES  an unfilled space within a mass  CAVITIEDadj

MACULAn pl. -LAS or -LAE  a spot  MACULARadj

MACULATEv-LATED, -LATING, -LATES  to mark with spots

The above image shows the ophthalmological view of a normal retina including the fovea (asterisk) and the optic nerve head ("blind spot," delineated by the dashed white line).

Images by Palomar College, Neuron Research, psywww, PNAS

What's a Scrabble Bingo?

A bingo is when a player empties his or her rack in one turn, placing all seven of their letters on the board to create a word that's at least seven letters long. The term "bingo" is used primarily in the U.S., but elsewhere it's simply known as a "bonus" because you get a bonus of 50 points added to your turn's score. "Scrabble Bingo of the Day" will focus on these high scoring plays, teaching you some interesting and possibly unusual seven-letter or longer words accepted in a game of Scrabble.

Track future Bingo of the Days:

Follow @scrabbleworld on Twitter and like on Facebook.