acephalous

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: a=ceph=a=lous

CIDE DICTIONARY

acephalous, a. [See Acephal.].

•  Headless.  [1913 Webster]
•  Without a distinct head; -- a term applied to bivalve mollusks.  [1913 Webster]
•  Having the style spring from the base, instead of from the apex, as is the case in certain ovaries.  [1913 Webster]
•  Without a leader or chief.  [1913 Webster]
•  Wanting the beginning.  [1913 Webster]

  "A false or acephalous structure of sentence."  [1913 Webster]
•  Deficient at the beginning, as a line of poetry.  Brande.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

acephalous, adj.
1 headless.
2 having no chief.
3 Zool. having no part of the body specially organized as a head.
4 Bot. with a head aborted or cut off.
5 Prosody lacking a syllable or syllables in the first foot.

Etymology

med.L acephalus f. Gk akephalos headless (as A-(1), kephale head)

DEVIL DICTIONARY

acephalous

adj. In the surprising condition of the Crusader who absently pulled at his forelock some hours after a Saracen scimitar had, unconsciously to him, passed through his neck, as related by de Joinville.

ROGET THESAURUS

acephalous

Disorder

N disorder, derangement, irregularity, anomaly, anarchy, anarchism, want of method, untidiness, disunion, discord, confusion, confusedness, mishmash, mix, disarray, jumble, huddle, litter, lumber, cahotage, farrago, mess, mash, muddle, muss, hash, hodgepodge, hotch-potch, hotch-pot, imbroglio, chaos, omnium gatherum, medley, mere mixture, fortuitous concourse of atoms, disjecta membra, rudis indigestaque moles, complexity, turmoil, ferment, to-do, trouble, pudder, pother, row, rumble, disturbance, hubbub, convulsion, tumult, uproar, revolution, riot, rumpus, stour, scramble, brawl, fracas, rhubarb, fight, free-for-all, row, ruction, rumpus, embroilment, melee, spill and pelt, rough and tumble, whirlwind, bear garden, Babel, Saturnalia, donnybrook, Donnybrook Fair, confusion worse confounded, most admired disorder, concordia discors, Bedlam, all hell broke loose, bull in a china shop, all the fat in the fire, diable a' quatre, Devil to pay, pretty kettle of fish, pretty piece of work, pretty piece of business, disorderly person, disorderly persons offence, misdemeanor, slattern, slut (libertine), disorderly, orderless, out of order, out of place, out of gear, irregular, desultory, anomalous, acephalous, deranged, aimless, disorganized, straggling, unmethodical, immethodical, unsymmetric, unsystematic, untidy, slovenly, dislocated, out of sorts, promiscuous, indiscriminate, chaotic, anarchical, unarranged &c (arrange), confused, deranged, topsy-turvy, shapeless, disjointed, out of joint, troublous, riotous, complex, irregularly, by fits, by fits and snatches, by fits and starts, pellmell, higgledy-piggledy, helter-skelter, harum-scarum, in a ferment, at sixes and sevens, at cross-purposes, upside down, the cart before the horse, hysteron proteron, chaos is come again, the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.