flocculent

American  

[flok-yuh-luhnt] / ˈflɒk yə lənt /

adjective

1. like a clump or tuft of wool.

2. covered with a soft, woolly substance.

3. consisting of or containing loose woolly masses.

4. flocky.

5. Chemistry. consisting of flocs and floccules.

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flocculent British  

/ ˈflɒkjʊlənt /

adjective

1. like wool; fleecy

2. chem aggregated in woolly cloudlike masses

   a flocculent precipitate

3. biology covered with tufts or flakes of a waxy or wool-like substance

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Other Word Forms

• flocculence noun
• flocculency noun
• flocculently adverb

Etymology

Origin of flocculent

First recorded in 1790–1800; flocc(us) + -ulent

Example Sentences

They invariably come laden with words that seem meant to prove his vocabulary is bigger than yours: flocculent, crapulent, caducous, anaglypta, mephitic, velutinous.

From New York Times • Oct. 1, 2020

“A vast, flocculent cloud darkened and devitalized the city, mimicking the family mood like weather does in memories.”

From New York Times • Apr. 11, 2019

The wind, hilarious, loud, piping gayly a tuneful stave, shepherded the clouds in the fair fields of the high sky, driving the flocculent white masses here and there as listed a changing will.

From The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain and Other Stories by Murfree, Mary Noailles

When the decoction becomes slightly alkaline, it deposites a red flocculent precipitate, and the fluid is changed from a yellow to a crimson colour.

From North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826 by Bache, Franklin

The stem is solid above and hollow below, fibrous, pale, its surface more or less covered with flocculent down, and densely covered with white down at the base.

From The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise Its Habitat and its Time of Growth by Hard, Miron Elisha