adjective
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like wool; fleecy
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chem aggregated in woolly cloudlike masses
a flocculent precipitate
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biology covered with tufts or flakes of a waxy or wool-like substance
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of flocculent
Explanation
If something's puffy or has tufts, you can describe it as flocculent. Sheep are flocculent before they're sheared, and much less flocculent afterward. The unusual adjective flocculent basically means "fluffy," although it's specific to the way wool is fluffy — in tufts. Your carefully styled hair might be flocculent after a drive in a convertible, for example. The root is the Latin word floccus, which means "lock of hair" or "tuft of wool."
Vocabulary lists containing flocculent
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.
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
Complete digestion, at any rate in the Calcutta form, takes several days to accomplish, and after the process is finished a flocculent mass of colourless excreta is emitted from the mouth.
From Freshwater Sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa by Annandale, Nelson
Around it could be seen great flocculent shreds of foam which alternately grew and narrowed down again, girdling it with a white belt of lace-work.
From The Marquis of Pe?alta (Marta y Mar?a) A Realistic Social Novel by Palacio Vald?s, Armando
This white flocculent substance is silicic acid combined with the elements of water, and is therefore called by chemists hydrate of silica.
From British Manufacturing Industries Pottery, Glass and Silicates, Furniture and Woodwork. by Arnoux, L.
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.
