animalcule
Americannoun
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a minute or microscopic animal, nearly or quite invisible to the naked eye, as an infusorian or rotifer.
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Archaic. a tiny animal, as a mouse or fly.
noun
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The last time this tiny wheel animalcule was moving around, wooly mammoths roamed the earth.
From Scientific American • Aug. 17, 2021
And then there are the names: where its cultural presence permits, each animal or animalcule is followed by a list of folk nomenclature.
From The Guardian • Jun. 11, 2010
Malaria's cause is known: a tiny animalcule injected by a mosquito's sting.
From Time Magazine Archive
The crablike animalcule is most at home burrowing under the skins of people who do not wash much.
From Time Magazine Archive
No; it would only mean that the animalcule had returned to the occupations of its ditch, while the worlds and the peoples went spinning to their destiny.
From The Daughters of Danaus by Caird, Mona
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
