adjective
definition
Capable of being opposed or resisted.
definition
Capable of being placed opposite something else.
example
The thumb is opposable to the forefinger.
Examples of opposable in a Sentence
You owe the Oracle a can opener that doesn't require an opposable thumb.
Hind-feet short and broad, with five welldeveloped toes; the first large, nailless and opposable; the second and third slender and united by a common integument as far as.
They differ in certain respects, as in the proportion of the limbs, in the bony development of the eyebrow ridges, and in the opposable great toe, which fits the foot to be a climbing and grasping organ.
The foot resembles that of the other lemurs in its large opposable great toe with a flat nail; but all the other toes have pointed compressed claws.
The Javan Pithechirus has the thumb opposable, while the Papuan Chiruromys has the tip of the tail naked above and prehensile.
Perhaps, however, the most interesting member of the whole group is the tiny musk-kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus) of north-east Australia, which alone represents the sub-family Hypsiprymnodontinae, characterized by the presence of an opposable first toe on the hind-foot and the outward inclination of the penultimate upper premolar, as well by the small and feeble claws.
The hand of the gorilla corresponds essentially as to bones and muscles with that of man, but is clumsier and heavier; its thumb is " opposable " like a human thumb, that is, it can easily meet with its extremity the extremities of the other fingers, thus possessing a character which does much to make the human hand so admirable an instrument; but the gorilla's thumb is proportionately shorter than man's.
In characters of such importance as the structure of the hand and foot, the lower apes diverge extremely from the gorilla; thus the thumb ceases to be opposable in the American monkeys, and in the marmosets is directed forwards, and armed with a curved claw like the other digits, the great toe in these latter being insignificant in proportion.
These ancestral mammals, in addition to their small size, were characterized by the presence of five toes to each foot, of which the first was more or less completely opposable to the other four.
You owe the Oracle a can opener that does n't require an opposable thumb.
The first family is that of the true or American opossums- Didelphyidae, in which there are five pairs of upper incisors, while the feet are of the presumed primitive arboreal type, the hind foot having the four outer toes subequal and separate, with the first opposable to them all.
The tail is rudimentary, the first hind-toe opposable, the first pair of upper incisors very large, but the second and third either absent or small and placed partially behind the larger pair; and only five pairs of cheek-teeth in each jaw.
Fore-feet with the two inner toes slightly separated from and opposable to the remaining three, all with strong curved and much compressed claws.