spermatium
Americannoun
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spermatia
plural
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Botany. the nonmotile male gamete of a red alga.
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Mycology. a minute, colorless cell, of certain fungi and lichens, believed to be a male reproductive body, developed within spermogonia.
noun
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spermatia
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of spermatium
1855–60; < New Latin < Greek spermátion, equivalent to spermat- (stem of spérma ) sperm 1 + -ion -ium
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.
Like a powder-coated bee spreading pollen from plant to plant, isopods spread spermatia throughout a tide pool as they travel between seaweed clumps.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 28, 2022
Earlier studies suggested that the spermatia of Gracilaria gracilis were dispersed by ocean currents, but given their abundance in calm coastal rock pools, Dr. Valero suspected another dispersal mechanism was at play.
From New York Times ● Jul. 28, 2022
Scientists have long thought that the seaweed’s spermatia simply drift wherever the current takes them, with only a slim chance of landing on a female seaweed’s reproductive organ.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 28, 2022
They examined the isopods under a microscope and found that they had spermatia stuck to nearly every part of their bodies.
From New York Times ● Jul. 28, 2022
Besides the reproductive system here described, Tulasne also made known the existence of a series of filaments which produce spermatia.
From Fungi: Their Nature and Uses by Cooke, M. C. (Mordecai Cubitt)
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.
