integument

Borrowed from Latin integumentum (“a covering”).

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɛɡ.jʊ.mənt/
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integument (plural integuments)

1. A shell or other outer protective layer.
   • 2022, China Miéville, chapter 6, in A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto, OCLC 1331706453:

     […] if we're moved by the book's condemnation of a world wounded by exploitation, where the drive for profit hobbles the mass of humanity, bolsters vast integuments of oppression and repression, […]

2. (biology) An outer protective covering such as the feathers or skin of an animal, a rind or shell.
   • 1984, Jack Vance, Rhialto the Marvellous:

     Sarsem became a naked young epicene in an integument of lavender scales with puffs of purple hair like pom-poms growing down his back.

3. (botany) The outer layer of an ovule, which develops into the seed coat.
   • 1920, D.H. Lawrence, Women in Love, ch. 1:

     Her active living was suspended, but underneath, in the darkness, something was coming to pass. If only she could break through the last integuments!

• integumental
• integumentary

• tegument

• bitegmic
• endotegmic
• exotegmic
• mesotegmic
• unitegmic

From French integumentum, from Latin integumentum.

integument n (plural integumente)

1. integument