Adjacent Words

plankton definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the aggregate of small plant and animal organisms that float or drift in great numbers in fresh or salt water

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: German, from Greek, neuter of planktos drifting, from plazesthai to wander, drift, middle voice of plazein to drive astray; akin to Latin plangere to strike — more at plaint Date: 1891 the passively floating or weakly swimming usually minute animal and plant life of a body of water • planktonic adjective

Britannica Concise

Marine and freshwater organisms that, because they are unable to move or are too small or too weak to swim against water currents, exist in a drifting, floating state. Plankton is the productive base of both marine and freshwater ecosystems, providing food for larger animals and indirectly for humans, whose fisheries depend on plankton. As a human resource, plankton has only begun to be developed and used. The plantlike community of plankton is called phytoplankton, and the animal-like community is called zooplankton, but many planktonic organisms are better described as protists. Most phytoplankton serves as food for zooplankton, but some of it is carried below the light zone. Zooplankton is used directly as food by fish (incl. herring) or mammals (incl. whales), but several links on the food chain usually have been passed before plankton is available for human consumption.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. the chiefly microscopic organisms drifting or floating in the sea or fresh water (see BENTHOS, NEKTON). Derivatives: planktonic adj. Etymology: G f. Gk plagktos wandering f. plazomai wander

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Plankton Plank"ton (pl[a^][ng]k"t[o^]n), n. [NL., fr. Gr. plagto`n, neut. of plagto`s wandering, pla`zesqai to wander.] (Biol.) All the animals and plants, taken collectively, which live at or near the surface of salt or fresh waters. -- Plank*ton"ic, a.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Plankton is a mass of tiny animals and plants that live in the surface layer of the sea. ...its usual diet of plankton and other small organisms.

Moby Thesaurus

Iceland moss, Irish moss, Loch Ness monster, alevin, benthon, benthos, brown algae, cetacean, conferva, dolphin, dulse, fingerling, fish, fry, fucoid, fucus, game fish, green algae, grilse, gulfweed, kelp, kipper, lichen, man-eater, man-eating shark, marine animal, minnow, minny, nekton, panfish, phytoplankton, pond scum, porpoise, red algae, reindeer moss, rockweed, salmon, sargasso, sargassum, scum, sea monster, sea moss, sea pig, sea serpent, sea snake, sea wrack, seaweed, shark, smolt, sponge, tropical fish, whale, wrack