conferva
Americannoun
-
confervae,
plural
-
confervas
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of conferva
1630–40; < Latin: a certain water plant supposed to heal wounds, akin to confervēre to grow together, heal ( see con-, fervent)
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.
See Examples For:
Presently he took to crawling, or rather running, over a thread of conferva, and then his back was elegantly arched, and his cilia stood erect like the quills of a porcupine.
From Marvels of Pond-life A Year's Microscopic Recreations by Henry J. Slack
But if the conferva or parasitic fungus exceeds its allies in the above respects, it will then be dominant within its own class.
From The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin
Polyps may be obtained at all times of the year by bringing home duckweed, conferva, and other water-plants from the ponds.
From Marvels of Pond-life A Year's Microscopic Recreations by Henry J. Slack
Our mass of conferva turns out to contain one of the most elegant species.
From Marvels of Pond-life A Year's Microscopic Recreations by Henry J. Slack
I know it is not new; but how wonderful his account of the spermatozoa of some dioecious alga or conferva, swimming and finding the minute micropyle in a distinct plant, and forcing its way in!
From More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 by Sir Francis Darwin
We found it covered with green confervae; a double border of pistia and broad-leaved reed grasses, six to seven feet high, enclosing it all round.
From The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes by Austin Craig
I saw them here wading about in search of food — probably for the worms which burrow in the mud; and these latter probably feed on infusoria or confervae.
From The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
"The majestic flow" of confervae remarked by Livingstone on the Tanganyika is beyond my comprehension, if that vast lake has no outlet at the north.
From Ismailia by Sir Samuel White Baker
Are they of the class of the ulvae, confervae, or fuci? to be welcomed as old acquaintance, or, hitherto unnoticed, to be added to the catalogue of Nature’s endless stores?
From The King's Own by Frederick Marryat
The inveterate antagonism of these black precipices to all strugglers for life is in no way more forcibly suggested than by the paucity of tufts of grass, lichens, or confervae on their outermost ledges.
From A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy
We entered one of these caverns to gather the confervas that were spread over the clefts and humid sides of the rock.
From Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 2 by Alexander von Humboldt
In a few moments the boat had glided on to a carpet of confervas and other aquatic plants, starting a few kingfishers and some snow-white herons.
From Dick Sands, the Boy Captain by Ellen E. Frewer
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.
