CORPUSCLE

atom, molecule, particle, corpuscle, mote, speck

(noun) (nontechnical usage) a tiny piece of anything

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

corpuscle (plural corpuscles)

A minute particle; an atom; a molecule.

A protoplasmic animal cell; especially, such as float free, like blood, lymph, and pus corpuscles; or such as are embedded in an intercellular matrix, like connective tissue and cartilage corpuscles.

Source: Wiktionary


Cor"pus*cle (-ps-s'l), n. Etym: [L. corpusculum, dim. of corpus.]

1. A minute particle; an atom; a molecule.

2. (Anat.)

Definition: A protoplasmic animal cell; esp., such as float free, like blood, lymph, and pus corpuscles; or such as are imbedded in an intercellular matrix, like connective tissue and cartilage corpuscles. See Blood. Virchow showed that the corpuscles of bone are homologous with those of connective tissue. Quain's Anat. Red blood corpuscles (Physiol.), in man, yellowish, biconcave, circular discs varying from 1/3500 to 1/3200 of an inch in diameter and about 1/12400 of an inch thick. They are composed of a colorless stroma filled in with semifluid hæmoglobin and other matters. In most mammals the red corpuscles are circular, but in the camels, birds, reptiles, and the lower vertebrates generally, they are oval, and sometimes more or less spherical in form. In Amphioxus, and most invertebrates, the blood corpuscles are all white or colorless.

– White blood corpuscles (Physiol.), rounded, slightly flattened, nucleated cells, mainly protoplasmic in composition, and possessed of contractile power. In man, the average size is about 1/2500 of an inch, and they are present in blood in much smaller numbers than the red corpuscles.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

8 May 2024

HYPSOGRAPHY

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Coffee Trivia

According to Guinness World Records, on 25 September 2016, the Birla Institute of Management Technology (India) in Uttar Pradesh, India, constructed the largest coffee cups pyramid consisting of 23,821 cups. They used paper takeaway coffee cups to build the pyramid.

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