fibril

American  

[fahy-bruhl, fib-ruhl] / ˈfaɪ brəl, ˈfɪb rəl /

noun

1. a small or fine fiber or filament.

2. Botany. any of the delicate hairs on the young roots of some plants.

3. Cell Biology. any threadlike structure or filament.

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fibril British  

/ ˈfaɪbrɪl, fɪ-, faɪˈbrɪlə /

noun

1. a small fibre or part of a fibre

2. biology a threadlike structure, such as a root hair or a thread of muscle tissue

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fibril Scientific  

/ fī′brəl,fĭb′rəl /

1. Any of various threadlike fibers or filaments that are constituent parts of a cell or larger structure. Cellulose fibrils are the main component of cell walls in plants. Fibrils make up the contractile part of striated muscle fiber in the body.

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Other Word Forms

• fibrilar adjective
• fibrillar adjective
• fibrilliform adjective
• fibrillose adjective

Etymology

Origin of fibril

1655–65; < New Latin fibrilla, equivalent to Latin fibr ( a ) fiber + -illa diminutive suffix

Example Sentences

For decades, scientists have considered amyloid beta oligomers as more toxic than the larger amyloid beta fibrils that form plaques, which appear later in Alzheimer's disease.

From Science Daily

The way materials solidify is crucial in many natural processes, such as mineralization, the formation of ice, and the folding of protein fibrils.

From Science Daily

Researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University have turned to concepts from polymer physics to better understand a central feature of Alzheimer's disease: the formation of tau protein fibrils.

From Science Daily

They boiled them for several hours to form long, thin fibrils.

From Science Daily

Each fibril had to be carefully designed -- larger fibrils had weaker adhesion, while the smaller fibrils were hard to fabricate and prone to collapse and degradation.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• cord
• cotton
• fiber
• filament
• hair
• ribbon
• strand
• string
• wire
• wool
• yarn