foraminifer definitions

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: marine microorganism having a calcareous shell with openings where pseudopods protrude [syn: foram, foraminifer]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: circa 1842 any of an order (Foraminifera) of large chiefly marine rhizopod protozoans usually having calcareous shells that often are perforated with minute holes for protrusion of slender pseudopodia and form the bulk of chalk and nummulitic limestone • foraminiferal adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (also foraminiferan) any protozoan of the order Foraminifera, having a perforated shell through which amoeba-like pseudopodia emerge. Derivatives: foraminiferous adj.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Foraminifer For`a*min"i*fer, n. (Zo["o]l.) One of the foraminifera.