tympanum

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Noun

tympanum (plural tympanums)

1. (architecture) A triangular space between the sides of a pediment.
2. (architecture) The space within an arch, and above a lintel or a subordinate arch, spanning the opening below the arch.
   • 2005, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury Publishing, paperback, page 9

     It was a black-and-white picture of a Romanesque doorway, with flanking saints and a lively Last Judgement in the tympanum [...].

3. The middle ear.
4. The eardrum.
5. (anatomy) A hearing organ in frogs, toads and some insects.
6. (anatomy) In certain birds, the labyrinth at the bottom of the windpipe.
7. (engineering) A drum-shaped wheel with spirally curved partitions by which water is raised to the axis when the wheel revolves with the lower part of the circumference submerged; used for raising water, as for irrigation.

Translations

• German: Tympanum
• Italian: timpano
• Russian: тимпан

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