elater
Origin of elater
1Words Nearby elater
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use elater in a sentence
Furthermore, the spirals may be smooth or spinulose the elater uniform throughout or enlarged betimes by nodes and swellings.
The North American Slime-Moulds | Thomas H. (Thomas Huston) MacBrideThe capillitium is very even the taeniae closely wound, the elater-ends often furcate.
The North American Slime-Moulds | Thomas H. (Thomas Huston) MacBrideI have frequently watched the ants make use of these passages mined by the elater on these occasions.
Animal Intelligence | George J. RomanesIt is the elater, or still more scientifically, the Pyrophorus noctilucus.
On the Banks of the Amazon | W.H.G. KingstonHence their name of elater (derived from the same root as the word elastic).
The Insect World | Louis Figuier
British Dictionary definitions for elater
/ (ˈɛlətə) /
an elaterid beetle
botany a spirally thickened filament, occurring in liverwort capsules and horsetails, thought to aid dispersal of spores
Origin of elater
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for elater
[ ĕl′ə-tər ]
A tiny elongated structure that helps disperse plant spores by coiling and uncoiling in response to changes in humidity. The elaters of horsetails are bands attached to the spore wall, while those of liverworts are sterile cells occurring among the spores.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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