sclera
nounUS /ˈsklɛrə/ · /ˈsklɛəɹə/
Etymology Borrowed from New Latin sclera, from Ancient Greek σκληρός (sklērós, “hard”).
1
Anatomy, Medicine, Sciences The white of the eye; the tough outer coat of the eye that covers the eyeball except for the cornea.
- She'd been back a week and it was clear that college-level track was kicking her ass, the sclera in her normally wide manga-eyes were shot through with blood vessels.2007, Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao:
- Such pressures explain why humans are peculiar in having our rather small irises set against a white background—the sclera—in our eyes. Anyone watching us can infer where we are looking or whom we are looking at.2016, Joseph Henrich, chapter 13, in The Secret of Our Success […] , Princeton: Princeton University Press, →ISBN:
- Derived terms
- corneosclera, episclera, scleral, scleritis
- Related terms
- scleralization, sclero-, conjunctiva, cornea, iris