Adjacent Words

protoplasm definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the substance of a living cell (including cytoplasm and nucleus) [syn: protoplasm, living substance]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: German Protoplasma, from prot- + New Latin plasma Date: 1848 1. the organized colloidal complex of organic and inorganic substances (as proteins and water) that constitutes the living nucleus, cytoplasm, plastids, and mitochondria of the cell 2. cytoplasm • protoplasmic adjective

Britannica Concise

Cytoplasm and nucleus of a cell. In 1835, when the term was first defined, it referred to the ground substance of living material responsible for all living processes. Cells were seen as either fragments or containers of protoplasm, but the origin of formed structures within the cell, especially the nucleus, was unaccounted for. Today the term is used to mean simply the cytoplasm and nucleus.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. the material comprising the living part of a cell, consisting of a nucleus embedded in membrane-enclosed cytoplasm. Derivatives: protoplasmal adj. protoplasmatic adj. protoplasmic adj. Etymology: Gk protoplasma (as PROTO-, PLASMA)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Protoplasm Pro"to*plasm, n. [Proto- + Gr. ? form, fr. ? to mold.] (Biol.) The viscid and more or less granular material of vegetable and animal cells, possessed of vital properties by which the processes of nutrition, secretion, and growth go forward; the so-called `` physical basis of life;'' the original cell substance, cytoplasm, cytoblastema, bioplasm sarcode, etc. Note: The lowest forms of animal and vegetable life (unicellular organisms) consist of simple or unaltered protoplasm; the tissues of the higher organisms, of differentiated protoplasm.

Moby Thesaurus

animal cell, bioplast, cell, cellular tissue, cellule, chromatoplasm, coenocyte, corpuscle, cytoplasm, ectoplasm, endoplasm, energid, eucaryotic cell, germ cell, plant cell, plasmodium, procaryotic cell, reticulum, somatic cell, syncytium, trophoplasm