Valve

How to spell valve

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce valve

What does valve mean?

1. nounA device that regulates or directs the flow of a fluid or gas by opening, closing, or partly obstructing a passage.
2. nounA membranous fold in the heart or a vein that allows blood to flow in one direction only.
3. nounA vacuum tube used in older electronic equipment to control an electric current.

Valve in a sentence

• The plumber replaced the leaking valve under the sink.

• The surgeon repaired a leaking heart valve during the operation.

• The vintage radio still glows when its valve warms up.

• Turn the gas valve off before lighting the boiler.

• A damaged valve can allow blood to flow backwards through the vein.

• Audio enthusiasts prize the warm sound of a valve amplifier.

Where does valve come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin valva, which literally meant one leaf of a folding or double door, the part that swings to open and close. Because such a door panel opens and shuts to let things pass, the term was a natural fit when, by the early 1600s, English needed a name for a device that opens and closes to control the flow of liquid or gas. The Latin plural valvae described the two halves of a door together, and that same idea of paired flaps survives in the anatomical sense, where heart valves are membranous folds that open one way and seal the other. The spelling preserves the Latin v-a-l-v skeleton almost untouched, which is why the silent-feeling glide between the l and the final v can trip writers who expect a vowel there. The root is unrelated to 'value' despite the similar look, so the two should not be confused.

How the word is built

• valv- (from Latin valva: leaf of a folding door)
• -e