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filum

American  
[fahy-luhm] / ˈfaɪ ləm /

noun

plural

fila
  1. a threadlike structure; filament.


filum British  
/ ˈfaɪləm /

noun

  1. anatomy any threadlike structure or part

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of filum

1855–60; < Latin: a thread, filament, fiber

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Are we to regard these as specimens of a fucus, perhaps the filum, or allied to it, which is known in some places by the appropriate name of sea-laces?

From The Cruise of the Betsey or, A Summer Ramble Among the Fossiliferous Deposits of the Hebrides. With Rambles of a Geologist or, Ten Thousand Miles Over the Fossiliferous Deposits of Scotland by Symonds, W. S. (William Samuel)

The word "flax" is derived from filare, to spin, or, filum, a thread; and the botanical title, linum, is got from the Celtic lin also signifying thread.

From Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure by Fernie, William Thomas

This thread, the filum labyrinthi, is the new method of induction.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon" by Various

A small form is often found parasitic on Chorda filum, spreading out horizontally like the hairs of a bottle brush.

From Sea-Weeds, Shells and Fossils by Gray, Peter

The obliquity of the nerves gradually increases, till in the lower part of the canal—from the second lumbar vertebra onward—they run parallel with the filum terminale and together constitute the cauda equina.

From Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. by Miles, Alexander