spicula
Americannoun
plural
spiculaeEtymology
Origin of spicula
1740–50; < New Latin spīcula, Medieval Latin, equivalent to Latin spīc ( a ) ear of grain + -ula -ule
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.
When nearly on the crest of the Portillo, we were enveloped in a falling cloud of minute frozen spicula.
From The Voyage of the Beagle by Darwin, Charles
The same image at EP III iii 105-6 'ergo alii noceant miseris optentque timeri, / tinctaque mordaci spicula felle gerant'.
From The Last Poems of Ovid by Akrigg, Mark Bear
She looked at Cromwell and thanked him for the warning, 'quia spicula praevisa minus laedunt.'
From The Fifth Queen And How She Came to Court by Ford, Ford Madox
These spicula are of the same diameter throughout their length; they are easily detached, so that the object-glass of the microscope soon becomes scattered over with them.
From Volcanic Islands by Darwin, Charles
Linguæ procacis plumbea spicula, Fidens, superbo frange silentio; Victrix per obstantes catervas Sedulitas animosa tendet.
From Life of Johnson, Volume 1 1709-1765 by Hill, George Birkbeck Norman
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.
