Definition of "ampulla" []

• A nearly round bottle with two handles used by the ancient Romans for wine, oil, or perfume. (noun)
• Ecclesiastical A vessel for consecrated wine or holy oil. (noun)
• Anatomy A small dilatation in a canal or duct, especially one in the semicircular canal of the ear. (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.

• "A catheter then is inserted where the bile duct opens into the intestine this is called the ampulla."
• "Each measures about 0.8 mm. in diameter, and presents a dilatation at one end, called the ampulla, which measures more than twice the diameter of the tube."
• "Each of these membranous canals possesses at one end, in an enlargement called the ampulla, a group of sense cells."