caduceus

1. 1.

   an insignia used by the medical profession; modeled after the staff of Hermes

   Broaderinsignia

Other forms of caduceus

plural

caducei

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about caduceus

What does caduceus mean?

caduceus means "an insignia used by the medical profession; modeled after the staff of Hermes".

How many syllables are in caduceus?

caduceus has 4 syllables: ca-du-ce-us. The stress falls on "du".

Is caduceus a common word?

caduceus is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.