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
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
Belt several times exposed the underground chambers to observation and found that they were always about three parts filled with “a speckled, brown, flocculent, spongy-looking mass of a light and loosely-connected substance.”
From The Industries of Animals by Frédéric Houssay
As soon as the precipitate has become flocculent, collect on a tared filter, wash with 90-percent alcohol until free from lead, wash with ether, dry and weigh.
From All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers
P. 4-5 mm. campan. flocculent, edge becoming striate, white; g. chocolate; s. 1-2 cm. flocculent, white; sp.
From European Fungus Flora: Agaricaceae by George Massee
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.
