corpuscle
Americannoun
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Biology. an unattached cell, especially of a kind that floats freely, as a blood or lymph cell.
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Anatomy. a small mass or body forming a more or less distinct part, as the sensory receptors at nerve terminals.
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Physical Chemistry. a minute or elementary particle of matter, as an electron, proton, or atom.
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any minute particle.
noun
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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
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anatomy the encapsulated ending of a sensory nerve
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physics a discrete particle such as an electron, photon, ion, or atom
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Also called: corpuscule. any minute particle
Other Word Forms
- corpuscular adjective
- corpusculated adjective
- corpusculous adjective
Etymology
Origin of corpuscle
First recorded in 1650–60; from Latin corpusculum, equivalent to corpus “body” + -culum -cle 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.
“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.
From Scientific American
We often refer to our highways, roads and avenues as “arteries,” as if they carried corpuscles instead of cars, platelets rather than pedestrians.
From Washington Post
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.
From Washington Post
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.
From Washington Post
Atoms and corpuscles are not machines, but their interaction is determined by size, shape and hardness, just as the interaction of the parts of a clock are.
From Literature
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.
