Adjacent Words

Corpuscle definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CORPUSCLE, n. [L., body.] A minute particle, or physical atom; corpuscles are the very small bodies which compose large bodies, not the elementary principles of matter, but such small particles simple or compound, as are not dissolved or dissipated by ordinary heat.
It will add much to our satisfaction, if those corpuscles can be discovered by microscopes.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: (nontechnical usage) a tiny piece of anything [syn: atom, molecule, particle, corpuscle, mote, speck]
2: either of two types of cells (erythrocytes and leukocytes) and sometimes including platelets [syn: blood cell, blood corpuscle, corpuscle]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Latin corpusculum, diminutive of corpus Date: 1660 1. a minute particle 2. a. a living cell; especially one (as a red or white blood cell or a cell in cartilage or bone) not aggregated into continuous tissues b. any of various small circumscribed multicellular bodies • corpuscular adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. a minute body or cell in an organism, esp. (in pl.) the red or white cells in the blood of vertebrates. Derivatives: corpuscular adj. Etymology: L corpusculum (as CORPUS)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Corpuscle Cor"pus*cle, n. (Physics) An electron.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Corpuscle Cor"pus*cle (-p[u^]s*s'l), n. [L. corpusculum, dim. of corpus.] 1. A minute particle; an atom; a molecule. 2. (Anat.) A protoplasmic animal cell; esp., such as float free, like blood, lymph, and pus corpuscles; or such as are imbedded in an intercellular matrix, like connective tissue and cartilage corpuscles. See Blood. Virchow showed that the corpuscles of bone are homologous with those of connective tissue. --Quain's Anat. Red blood corpuscles (Physiol.), in man, yellowish, biconcave, circular discs varying from 1/3500 to 1/3200 of an inch in diameter and about 1/12400 of an inch thick. They are composed of a colorless stroma filled in with semifluid h[ae]moglobin and other matters. In most mammals the red corpuscles are circular, but in the camels, birds, reptiles, and the lower vertebrates generally, they are oval, and sometimes more or less spherical in form. In Amphioxus, and most invertebrates, the blood corpuscles are all white or colorless. White blood corpuscles (Physiol.), rounded, slightly flattened, nucleated cells, mainly protoplasmic in composition, and possessed of contractile power. In man, the average size is about 1/2500 of an inch, and they are present in blood in much smaller numbers than the red corpuscles.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(corpuscles) Corpuscles are red or white blood cells. Deficiency of red corpuscles is caused by a lack of iron. N-COUNT: usu pl

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Atom, particle, molecule, mite, monad, scrap, bit, grain, jot, iota, tittle, whit, ace, scintilla.