Lexic.us

Definition of Amoeba

1. Noun. Naked freshwater or marine or parasitic protozoa that form temporary pseudopods for feeding and locomotion.

Definition of Amoeba

1. Noun. (biology) A genus of unicellular protozoa that moves by means of temporary projections called pseudopodia. ¹

2. Noun. (mathematics) The graph of the real part of the logarithms of a polynomial equation in complex numbers. ¹

3. Noun. (rare spelling of amoeba) ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Amoeba

1. a unicellular microscopic organism [n -BAS or -BAE] : AMOEBAN, AMOEBIC, AMOEBOID [adj]

Medical Definition of Amoeba

1. Genus of protozoa, but also an imprecise name given to several types of free living unicellular phagocytic organism. Giant forms (e.g. Amoeba proteus) may be up to 2mm long and crawl over surfaces by protruding pseudopods (amoeboid movement). Amoebae exhibit great plasticity of form and conspicuous cytoplasmic streaming. This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology (22 Feb 2008)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Amoeba

Literary usage of Amoeba

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The History of Creation: Or, The Development of the Earth and Its by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (1883)
"For an amoeba is nothing but a simple primary cell, a naked little lump of cell-matter, ... The contractility of this plasma, which the free amoeba shows in ..."

2. The American Naturalist by American Society of Naturalists, Essex Institute (1878)
"The human body with its intricate mechanism and appliances is a theme of incessant wonder and admiration, but the amoeba in its simplicity of structure and ..."

3. Contributions to the Study of the Behavior of Lower Organisms by Herbert Spencer Jennings (1904)
"Finally it pulled completely away from the large amoeba, which was still ... After the small amoeba had completely escaped the large one stopped and ..."

4. The American Journal of Psychology by Granville Stanley Hall, Edward Bradford ( Titchener (1908)
"One amoeba was followed with special care, while several others under various ... A drop of water containing the amoeba, when inserted between the slide and ..."

5. The Animal Parasites of Man: A Handbook for Students and Medical Men by Maximilian Gustav Christian Carl Braun, Pauline Falcke, Louis Westenra Sambon, Frederick Vincent Theobald (1908)
"amoeba gingivalis, Gros.J 3. amoeba buccalis, Steinberg.2 4. amoeba dentalis, Grassi.3 Of these three species the last mentioned may certainly be eliminated ..."

6. Microscopical Morphology of the Animal Body in Health and Disease by Carl Heitzmann (1882)
"Comparison of amoeba and Man. The analysis of a single protoplasmic lump is of the ... Man is a complex amoeba with permanent protrusions, the extremities, ..."

7. Animal Life: A First Book of Zoölogy by David Starr Jordan, Vernon Lyman Kellogg (1900)
"This splitting of the body of the amoeba, which is called fission, ... The original amoeba is the parent; the two halves of the parent are the young. ..."

8. Manual of bacteriology by Robert Muir (1906)
"In the first place, Is there an amoeba peculiar to dysentery (amoeba dysenteriae) and distinguishable from the amoebae present in other conditions? ..."

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