zooid
Americannoun
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any organic body or cell capable of spontaneous movement and of an existence more or less apart from or independent of the parent organism.
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any animal organism or individual capable of separate existence, and produced by fission, gemmation, or some method other than direct sexual reproduction.
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any one of the recognizably distinct individuals or elements of a compound or colonial animallike organism, whether or not detached or detachable.
adjective
noun
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any independent animal body, such as an individual of a coelenterate colony
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a motile cell or body, such as a gamete, produced by an organism
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of zooid
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.
Further complications arise when the lower walls of the mother zooid become thickened and interpenetrated with solenia, from which buds are developed, so that lobose, tufted, or branched colonies are formed.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 2 "Anjar" to "Apollo" by Various
The zooid then is, as it were, moulded upon the corallum.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 2 "Anjar" to "Apollo" by Various
Each Graptolite represents the common horny or chitinous investment or supporting structure of a colony of zooids, each tooth-like projection marking the position of the sheath or theca of an individual zooid.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 3 "Gordon, Lord George" to "Grasses" by Various
Every Alcyonarian colony is developed by budding from a single parent zooid.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 2 "Anjar" to "Apollo" by Various
As the buds develop the canal system becomes much extended, and calcareous tissue is deposited between the network of canals, the confluent edge-zones of mother zooid and bud forming a coenosarc.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 2 "Anjar" to "Apollo" by Various
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.
