Definition of "eardrum" [ear•drum]

• The thin, semitransparent, oval-shaped membrane that separates the middle ear from the external ear. Also called tympanic membrane, tympanum. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "NEW YORK — Christiane Amanpour stood on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday in a khaki shirt with a backdrop of Cairo in crisis, rattling off reports from the street in Egypt and noting the presence of flyovers by fighter jets in what she described as eardrum-ripping sound."
• "Christiane Amanpour stood on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday in a khaki shirt with a backdrop of Cairo in crisis, rattling off reports from the street in Egypt and noting the presence of flyovers by fighter jets in what she described as eardrum-ripping sound."
• "Cairo trip highlights shift for Amanpour Christiane Amanpour stood on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday in a khaki shirt with a backdrop of Cairo in crisis, rattling off reports from the street in Egypt and noting the presence of flyovers by fighter jets in what she described as eardrum-ripping sound."