SPORE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Spore

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noun

Spore n.

(Bot.)

(a)

One of the minute grains in flowerless plants, which are analogous to seeds, as serving to reproduce the species. Note: Spores are produced differently in the different classes of cryptogamous plants, and as regards their nature are often so unlike that they have only their minuteness in common. The peculiar spores of diatoms (called auxospores) increase in size, and at length acquire a siliceous coating, thus becoming new diatoms of full size. Compare Macrospore, Microspore, Oospore, Resting spore, Sphaerospore, Swarmspore, Tetraspore, Zoospore, and Zygospore.

(b)

An embryo sac or embryonal vesicle in the ovules of flowering plants.

(Biol.)

(a)

A minute grain or germ; a small, round or ovoid body, formed in certain organisms, and by germination giving rise to a new organism; as, the reproductive spores of bacteria, etc.

(b)

One of the parts formed by fission in certain Protozoa. See Spore formation, belw.

Spore formation.

(a)

(Biol) A mode of reproduction resembling multiple fission, common among Protozoa, in which the organism breaks up into a number of pieces, or spores, each of which eventually develops into an organism like the parent form.

(b)

The formation of reproductive cells or spores, as in the growth of bacilli.

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Etymology of 'Spore'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Spore" Quotes from Famous Books

... and never by any accident more like that of a frog. What is true of the newt is true of every animal and of every plant; the acorn tends to build itself up again into a woodland giant such as that from whose twig it fell; the spore of the humblest lichen reproduces the green or brown incrustation which gave it birth; and at the other end of the scale of life, the child that resembled neither the paternal nor the maternal side of the house would be regarded as a kind ...

— Darwiniana • Thomas Henry Huxley

... (10 1/2 fluid ounces), and containing a liquid adapted to the life of moulds. We boil this liquid, and seal the drawn-out point after the steam has expelled the air wholly or in part; we then open the flask in a garden or in a room. Should a fungus-spore enter the flask, as will invariably be the case in a certain number of flasks out of several used in the experiment, except under special circumstances, it will develop there and gradually absorb all the oxygen contained in the air of the flask. Measuring the volume of this air, ...

— The Harvard Classics Volume 38 - Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology) • Various

... is a genuine "animal spore," or seed-cell, capable of taking root and reproducing its kind in any favorable soil; and, unfortunately, almost every inch of a cancer patient's body seems to be such. It is merely a question of where the spore-cells ...

— Preventable Diseases • Woods Hutchinson

... gore lute five trade glide tone pole live plate wore cope lobe tore crave drive tube lane hive spore pride wipe bide save globe stove slate pore rave snipe snore mere flake cove stone spine store stole cave flame blade mute wide stale grove crime stake hone mete grape shave skate mine wake smite grime spike more wave white stride brake score slope drone ...

— The Beacon Second Reader • James H. Fassett

... asparagus and corn more than other vegetables. If the vegetables have been picked for some time and the bacteria have had a chance "to work," and you are not exceedingly careful about your canning, you may develop "flat sour" in the soup. If you let one little spore of this bacteria survive all is lost. Its moist growing place is favorable to development, particularly if not much acid is present. One little spore left in a jar will multiply in twenty hours to some twenty millions ...

— Every Step in Canning • Grace Viall Gray

... to be launched on possibly endless journeys into space. A nucleus of select individuals in a spore-like form of suspended animation was placed on each ship. Ships were launched in pairs, with automatic controls to be activated when they entered into the radius of attraction of a sun. Should the sun have ...

— Inside John Barth • William W. Stuart

Words linked to "Spore" : spore sac, zygospore, megaspore, endospore, carpospore, ascospore, aeciospore, agamete, basidiospore, zoospore, spore mother cell