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Gingiva

/jinˈjīvə/  /ˈjinjəvə/

Noun, pl. gingivas

1. Part of the soft tissue lining of the mouth. They surround the teeth and provide a seal around them. Compared with the soft tissue linings of the lips and cheeks, most of the gingiva are tightly bound to the underlying bone which helps resist the friction of food passing over them. (wikipedia.org)

2. The gum, consisting of the tissue surrounding the roots of the teeth and covering the jawbone. (wiktionary.org)

3. The tissue (covered by mucous membrane) of the jaws that surrounds the bases of the teeth. (wordnetweb.princeton.edu)

4. The gum. (Google Dictionary)

Word origin: From Latin gingiva “gums” (of unknown origin) + -al, suffix forming adjectives from nouns or other adjectives, “of, like, related to,” Middle English -al, -el, from French or directly from Latin -alis.