filamentary

[fil-uh-men-tuh-ree]

adjective

1. pertaining to or of the nature of a filament.

Other Word Forms

• interfilamentary adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of filamentary¹

First recorded in 1835–45; filament + -ary

Example Sentences

"Recent observations of our own Milky Way have increasingly highlighted the importance of filamentary molecular clouds as the primary sites of star formation."

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“Recent observations of our own Milky Way have increasingly highlighted the importance of filamentary molecular clouds as the primary sites of star formation,” Tokuda said.

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Although these structures are lighter than the molecular clouds with filamentary structures, they are still quite similar in other crucial aspects.

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“The environment, such as an adequate supply of heavy elements, is crucial for maintaining a filamentary structure and may play an important role in the formation of planetary systems,” Tokuda said in the study’s accompanying press statement.

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The researchers determined that stars can be formed in a diverse range of structures, but that there are “systematic differences in the physical properties of filamentary and non-filamentary clouds. The former tend to have smaller velocity dispersions relative to their column densities and exhibit higher temperatures.”

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