tympanum

noun

Etymology: Borrowed from Latin tympanum (“a drum, timbrel, tambourine; the eardrum”). Doublet of timbre, timpani, timbal, and tymbal.

1. A drum.
2. Any of various anatomic structures in various animals with analogy to a drum head:

   “When he came around, the star sound was gone. The ringing it left in his tympana was a great confusion.”

3. Any of various anatomic structures in various animals with analogy to a drum head:
4. Any of various anatomic structures in various animals with analogy to a drum head:
5. Any of various anatomic structures in various animals with analogy to a drum head:
6. Any of various anatomic structures in various animals with analogy to a drum head:
7. A vertical recessed triangular space between the sides of a pediment, typically decorated.
8. A vertical recessed triangular space between the sides of a pediment, typically decorated.

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

9. 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.