protoplasmic
Americanadjective
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Biology. relating to or being the protoplasm of a cell, or its nucleus and cytoplasm.
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consisting of or suggesting primordial, unstructured living matter not resembling any actual creature.
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.
Take Thomas Huxley, an early disciple of Darwin who became convinced in the 1860s that the seabed was blanketed by a living protoplasmic slime that he dubbed Bathybius haeckelii.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 24, 2021
Ginsberg, in his singular phrasing, praised McClure’s work as “a blob of protoplasmic energy.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2020
It broke all the rules of things natural, and introduced endless possibilities, unknown worlds that shifted shapes and light, creating myriad phantasms of protoplasmic gobbleygook.
From New York Times ● Nov. 3, 2016
But biology moved on from protoplasmic theory, and slime itself began to seem absurd.
From Slate ● Jul. 18, 2016
In the one and the other method of division the nuclei are brought into relation with different regions of the protoplasmic mass, and are united with these regions to form cellular individuals.
From The Biological Problem of To-day Preformation Or Epigenesis? The Basis of a Theory of Organic Development by Hertwig, Oscar
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.
