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nidus

American  
[nahy-duhs] / ˈnaɪ dəs /

noun

nidi plural
  1. a nest, especially one in which insects, spiders, etc., deposit their eggs.

  2. a place or point in an organism where a germ or other organism can develop or breed.


nidus British  
/ ˈnaɪdəs /

noun

  1. the nest in which insects or spiders deposit their eggs

  2. pathol a focus of infection

  3. a cavity in which plant spores develop

"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

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

Etymology

Origin of nidus

1735–45; < Latin nīdus nest

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.

See Examples For:

Among them, occasionally, an underlying structural abnormality in the brain can be the nidus for electrical disarray.

From New York Times Sep. 25, 2019

The S.D.P., however, had the advantage of being able to coalesce around the nidus of a small, old, still breathing third party, the Liberals.

From Time Magazine Archive

What would there be in his system which could furnish a nidus for its reception?

From Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages Including a System of Vegetable Cookery by Alcott, William A. (William Andrus)

These structural peculiarities of the testa in different plants have relation to the scattering of the seed and its germination upon a suitable nidus.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 3 "Frost" to "Fyzabad" by Various

There has been, may we not think, constant interchanges between these planets of such lives as survive material dissolution, and they have found the nidus that fits them in each.

From The Certainty of a Future Life in Mars by Gratacap, L. P.

These appearances consisted of long tubes passing nearly perpendicularly through the clay and terminating in receptacles or nidi, each tube leading to a separate receptacle.

From Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology by Various

We could fill a page with marvellous shots quos nidi et quorum pars, etc.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 24, October, 1859 by Various

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