corpuscle
1
9.4
- noun
- /ˈkɔːrpəsəl/
- Archaic
:
corpúsculo
- And, yes—beyond everything—I adored Lorna Sue with every fiery corpuscle of my being.
Examples
-
And it turns out elephants have all sorts of interesting pressure transducer receptor, little corpuscle thingies in their feet.
-
"Why are corpuscles red?" she asked.
Fiction book (1996) -
The bullet, which had popped out of his chest, was spinning on the table before his eyes, a puffing lead corpuscle scorching the polish.
Blog text (3) -
Millikan associated his measured e both with the charge on Thomson's corpuscles and the charge on the hydrogen ion in electrolysis.
Academic text (1997) -
Yellow dots of kitchen crew drifted in the cafeterias along with the green dots of adult inmates having their breakfasts; brown dots of maintenance workers moved like corpuscles in the corridors.
Fiction book (1991) -
I spent two months writing a poem about his discovery of spermatozoa, the "animalcules" in dental plaque, and the finding, three hundred years later, of one of his desiccated corpuscles on a slice of elder pith.
Fiction book (1994) -
The scientist studied the corpuscle to understand its role in the blood.
-
Red blood corpuscles carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.
-
Each corpuscle in our blood plays a vital role in maintaining our health.
Synonyms
447
4.2
A very small piece or amount of something
66
1.3
A very small spot or amount of something
11
3.1
A very small amount of something that shows there is almost none
4
8.2
A very small speck of dust or dirt
A very small piece like a grain of dust
Compounds
- Specialized
A small cell in blood that carries oxygen, fights infection, or helps stop bleeding
- Specialized
A part of the kidney at the end of a small tube where blood is filtered
- Specialized
A small nerve ending under the skin that senses pressure and fast vibration
- Archaic
A blood cell that helps protect the body by eating and killing bacteria and other germs
Surface Forms
Etymology
Corpuscle comes from the Latin root corpus meaning 'body' and the ending -cle meaning 'small', so it literally means 'small body'. That image helps you remember that a corpuscle can be a tiny particle or a very small part of something.