ˈtrākēə, chiefly Brit trəˈkēə noun
( plural trache·ae -ēˌē, -ēˌī ; also tracheas )
Etymology: Middle English, from Medieval Latin, windpipe, trachea, from Late Latin trachia, from Greek ( artēria ) tracheia rough (artery), from feminine of trachys rough, harsh; akin to Greek thrassein, thrattein to trouble, disturb — more at dark
1. : the main trunk of the system of tubes by which air passes to and from the lungs in vertebrates that forms in man a tube about four inches long and somewhat less than an inch in diameter extending down the front of the neck from the larynx, bifurcating to form the bronchi, and having walls of fibrous and muscular tissue stiffened by incomplete cartilaginous rings which keep it from collapsing and lined with mucous membrane whose epithelium is composed of columnar ciliated mucus-secreting cells — compare syrinx
2.
[New Latin]
: a xylem element or series of elements felt to resemble an animal trachea ; usually : a xylem vessel
3.
[New Latin]
: one of the air-conveying tubules forming the respiratory system of most insects, millipedes, centipedes, many arachnids, and the onychophorans and in the insects constituting typically a system of ramifying and anastomosing tubules that are enlarged at various points into air sacs, penetrate to nearly all parts of the body, and have a cuticular lining which is stiffened by a spiral fiber or fibrous thickening — compare book lung , spiracle , stigma , taenidium