corpuscle

Also cor·pus·cule

[kawr-puhs-uhl]

noun

1. Biology.,  an unattached cell, especially of a kind that floats freely, as a blood or lymph cell.

2. Anatomy.,  a small mass or body forming a more or less distinct part, as the sensory receptors at nerve terminals.

3. Physical Chemistry.,  a minute or elementary particle of matter, as an electron, proton, or atom.

4. any minute particle.

corpuscle

/ ˈkɔːpʌsəl, kɔːˈpʌskjʊlə /

noun

1. any cell or similar minute body that is suspended in a fluid, esp any of the red blood corpuscles (erythrocytes) or white blood corpuscles (see leucocytes) See also erythrocyte leucocyte

2. anatomy the encapsulated ending of a sensory nerve

3. physics a discrete particle such as an electron, photon, ion, or atom

4. Also called: corpuscule. any minute particle

Other Word Forms

• corpuscular adjective
• corpusculated adjective
• corpusculous adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of corpuscle¹

First recorded in 1650–60; from Latin corpusculum, equivalent to corpus “body” + -culum -cle ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of corpuscle¹

C17: from Latin corpusculum a little body, from corpus body

Example Sentences

“Is there in our parks any tree more elegant and leafy than the Purkinje corpuscle of the cerebellum or the psychic cell, in other words, the famous cerebral pyramid?” he asked.

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We often refer to our highways, roads and avenues as “arteries,” as if they carried corpuscles instead of cars, platelets rather than pedestrians.

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I used to work as a delivery driver, a job that took me all around the city, my car a tiny corpuscle traveling through the vast bloodstream of Washington.

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My senses seemed supersensitive and I was sure I could hear their food going down, their corpuscles moving through their bloodstreams, their alveoli inflating and deflating.

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For Descartes the material world consists of divisible corpuscles.

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Related Words

• bacterium 
• egg 
• germ 
• unit