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spicule
[ spik-yool ]
noun
- a small or minute, slender, sharp-pointed body or part; a small, needlelike crystal, process, or the like.
- Zoology. one of the small, hard, calcareous or siliceous bodies that serve as the skeletal elements of various marine and freshwater invertebrates.
- Astronomy. a jet of gas several hundred miles in diameter rising from the sun's surface to heights of 3,000 to 6,000 miles (4,800 to 9,600 km).
spicule
/ ˈspɪkjuːl; -lɪt; ˈspɪkjʊˌleɪt /
noun
- Also calledspiculum a small slender pointed structure or crystal, esp any of the calcareous or siliceous elements of the skeleton of sponges, corals, etc
- astronomy a spiked ejection of hot gas occurring over 5000 kilometres above the sun's surface (in its atmosphere) and having a diameter of about 1000 kilometres
spicule
/ ĭ′̅̅ /
- A needlelike structure or part, such as one of the mineral structures supporting the soft tissue of certain invertebrates, especially sponges.
- Any of numerous short-lived vertical jets of hot gas rising from the solar chromosphere and extending into the corona. Spicules, which only last for about five to ten minutes, are usually several hundred kilometers wide and several thousand kilometers high.
Derived Forms
- spiculate, adjective
yvlog History and Origins
yvlog History and Origins
Origin of spicule1
Example Sentences
Among and between the animals are interwoven trails of spicules, skeleton-like structures shed by the sponges.
Instead the scientists believe that the sponges stick their spicules into the ground and then slowly pull their bodies forward.
Another possibility is that the sponges move to disperse their offspring, or that they build spicule trails to provide sponge larvae with surfaces to settle on.
He saw spicules of coalesced matter — “radiobes,” as he called them — that resembled, to his eyes, the most primeval forms of life.
She expects “to see what they call deep-sea ‘coral gardens,’” which include spindly bamboo corals and glass sponges, which have glasslike structural spicules made of silica.
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