animalcule
- noun
- /ˌænɪˈmælˌkjuːl/
- Archaic
:
animalículo
- Under the microscope, he observed various animalcules swimming in the pond water.
- little animalcule
Examples
-
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 "skin" of the animalcule, the "agcoran" she called it, was smooth and not visibly porous, but I noticed it never quite got dry.
Fiction book (2001) -
After millions of years, the single-celled animalcules learned how to form cooperative colonies.
Fiction book (2000) -
I know the scientific names Of beings animalcules ♪ ♪ In short, in matters vegetable Animal and mineral ♪ ♪ I am the very model of a modern Major-General ♪ -[laughs]
-
The scientist studied a range of animalcules to understand their behavior and functions.
-
In the laboratory, she discovered that the animalcules in the sample exhibited fascinating movement patterns.
Synonyms
5
9.9
A very small animal that lives in water or in a colony
2
7.9
A very small single-celled organism often found in water or soil that can cause disease
A tiny living creature that you can see only with a microscope, like an amoeba
Very small animals that you can only see with a microscope
A very small living thing like bacteria or fungi that you can only see with a microscope
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Animalcule comes from animal ('animal') plus the ending -cule ('little'), so it literally means a 'little animal'. So, it was used for very small living things that you can only see with a microscope.