hornwort

[ hawrn-wurt, -wawrt ]

noun

any aquatic plant of the genus Ceratophyllum, found in ponds and slow streams.

Origin of hornwort

First recorded in 1795–1805; horn + wort²

Words Nearby hornwort

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use hornwort in a sentence

It is the hornwort (Ceratophyllum) gently wriggling or moving from side to side.
The Romance of Plant Life | G. F. Scott Elliot

British Dictionary definitions for hornwort

hornwort

/ (ˈhɔːnˌwɜːt) /

noun

any aquatic plant of the genus Ceratophyllum, forming submerged branching masses in ponds and slow-flowing streams: family Ceratophyllaceae
any of a group of bryophytes belonging to the phylum Anthocerophyta, resembling liverworts but with hornlike sporophytes

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for hornwort

hornwort

[ hôrn′wûrt′, -wôrt′ ]

Any of about 100 species of small bryophyte plants belonging to the phylum Anthocerophyta. Unlike liverworts but like mosses, hornwort sporophytes have stomata. The hornwort gametophyte consists of a low thallus, out of which numerous slender, upright sporophytes tipped with sporangia grow. The sporophyte has a meristem that elongates the sporophyte with new growth, a feature that distinguishes the plant from the other bryophytes. The name of the hornworts was suggested by the hornlike appearance of the sporophytes. See more at bryophyte.

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