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.
In Actinians the epithelio-muscular cells of the endoderm are crowded with yellow spherical bodies, which are unicellular plants or Algae, living symbiotically in the tissues of the zooid.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 2 "Anjar" to "Apollo" by Various
In Autolytus there is, to begin with, a conversion of the posterior half of the body to form a sexual zooid.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 7 "Cerargyrite" to "Charing Cross" by Various
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
Though the corallum appears to live within the zooid, it is morphologically external to it, as is best shown by its developmental history.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 2 "Anjar" to "Apollo" by Various
The stem represents a greatly enlarged and elongated mother zooid.
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.
