homunculus
Americannoun
plural
homunculi-
an artificially made dwarf, supposedly produced in a flask by an alchemist.
-
a fully formed, miniature human body believed, according to some medical theories of the 16th and 17th centuries, to be contained in the spermatozoon.
-
a diminutive human being.
-
the human fetus.
noun
-
a miniature man; midget
-
(in early biological theory) a fully-formed miniature human being existing in a spermatozoon or egg
Other Word Forms
- homuncular adjective
Etymology
Origin of homunculus
1650–60; < Latin, equivalent to homun- (variant of homin-, stem of homō man; Homo ) + -culus -cule 1
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.
As part of our quest, we became aware of contradictory findings in macaques and other nonhuman primates, which had not at the time sufficed to challenge the homunculus metaphor.
From Scientific American • Apr. 21, 2023
The homunculus likely lived to the age of 90 because everyone loves a good story.
From Scientific American • Apr. 21, 2023
Overall, our findings mean that the homunculus wears no clothes.
From Scientific American • Apr. 21, 2023
Why would there be this separate fundamentally different profile of brain connections right in the middle of this section of motor cortex if there was only a single integral homunculus?
From Scientific American • Apr. 21, 2023
From his pocket he took a clay homunculus figure, three inches tall, the last of those he’d made on Cairnholm.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
