animalcule

American  

[an-uh-mal-kyool] / ˌæn əˈmæl kyul /

noun

1. a minute or microscopic animal, nearly or quite invisible to the naked eye, as an infusorian or rotifer.

2. Archaic. a tiny animal, as a mouse or fly.

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animalcule British  

/ ˌænɪˈmælkjuːl, ˌænɪˈmælkjʊləm /

noun

1. a microscopic animal such as an amoeba or rotifer

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Other Word Forms

• animalcular adjective
• animalculine adjective
• animalculous adjective

Etymology

Origin of animalcule

First recorded in 1590–1600, animalcule is from the New Latin word animalculum “a small animal.” See animal, -cule ¹

Example Sentences

Upon learning of a red snowfield in the Swiss Alps, the American Naturalist reported that a Mr. Shuttleworth “betook himself thither” with his microscope and declared the color due to tiny animalcules.

From Seattle Times

He owed all of this to one thing: His cutting edge microscopes and their ability to study "animalcules," as bacteria were then called.

From Salon

The last time this tiny wheel animalcule was moving around, wooly mammoths roamed the earth.

From Scientific American

Stentors — or trumpet animalcules — are a group of single-celled freshwater protozoa.

From Nature

But research has shown that this community of “animalcules” that live in our bodies can be changed, and in relatively short time - in ways both good and bad.

From Washington Times