appendix

[uh-pen-diks] /əˈpɛn dɪks/

noun, plural appendixes, appendices

[uh-pen-duh-seez] /əˈpɛn dəˌsiz/ (Show IPA)

supplementary material at the end of a book, article, document, or other text, usually of an explanatory, statistical, or bibliographic nature.

Synonyms: addendum, adjunct, appurtenance; addition, supplement.

an appendage.

Anatomy.

a process or projection.
vermiform appendix.

Aeronautics. the short tube at the bottom of a balloon bag, by which the intake and release of buoyant gas is controlled.

Origin

1535-45; < Latin: appendage, equivalent to append(ere) to append + -ix (equivalent to -ic- noun suffix + -s nominative singular ending)

Can be confused

appendix, index, supplement (see synonym study at the current entry)

Synonym Study

Appendix, supplement both mean material added at the end of a book. An appendix gives useful additional information, but even without it the rest of the book is complete: In the appendix are forty detailed charts. A supplement, bound in the book or published separately, is given for comparison, as an enhancement, to provide corrections, to present later information, and the like: A yearly supplement is issued.

Usage note

Appendices, a plural borrowed directly from Latin, is sometimes used, especially in scholarly writing, to refer to supplementary material at the end of a book.

Examples from the web for appendix

For those who wish to further explore this approach to health, Web sites and other resources are listed in an appendix.
If you are directed to an appendix, read the appendix then return to where you left off in the text.
With that in mind, he includes a short glossary and lists of spices in his appendix, detailing essential and non-essential spices.
But some pellets may find their way into the appendix.
His appendix was removed in an emergency procedure.
Perhaps there is an appendix which lists all policies under two headings - popular and populist.
In its final chapters and a devastating appendix, it is revealed to be a cautionary tale as well.
The book contains an appendix of resource organizations that can help parents deal with their children's world.
The document has an appendix filled with case studies.
The appendix includes a detailed filmography.

British Dictionary definitions for appendix

appendix

/əˈpɛndɪks/

noun (pl) -dices (-dɪˌsiːz), -dixes

a body of separate additional material at the end of a book, magazine, etc, esp one that is documentary or explanatory

any part that is dependent or supplementary in nature or function; appendage

(anatomy) See vermiform appendix

Word Origin

C16: from Latin: an appendage, from appendere to append

Word Origin and History for appendix

1540s, "subjoined addition to a document or book," from Latin appendix "an addition, continuation, something attached," from appendere (see append). Used for "small outgrowth of an internal organ" from 1610s, especially in reference to the vermiform appendix. This sense perhaps from or influenced by French appendix, where the term was in use from 1540s.

appendix in Medicine

appendix ap·pen·dix (ə-pěn'dĭks)
n. pl. ap·pen·dix·es or ap·pen·di·ces (-dĭ-sēz')

A supplementary or an accessory part of an organ or a structure of the body.
The vermiform appendix.

appendix in Science

appendix

(ə-pěn'dĭks)
Plural appendixes or appendices (ə-pěn'-dĭ-sēz')
A tubular projection attached to the cecum of the large intestine and located on the lower right side of the abdomen. Also called vermiform appendix.

appendix in Culture

appendix definition

A small saclike organ located at the upper end of the large intestine. The appendix has no known function in present-day humans, but it may have played a role in the digestive system in humans of earlier times. The appendix is also called the vermiform appendix because of its wormlike (“vermiform”) shape.