Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An early embryonic form produced by cleavage of a fertilized ovum and consisting of a spherical layer of cells surrounding a fluid-filled cavity. Also called blastosphere.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In embryology: An embryo of one of the Metazoa, in the stage in which it consists of a sac formed of a single layer of cells.
- n. In Haeckel′ s vocabulary of embryology, same as blastosphere, .
Wiktionary
- n. embryology An early form in the development of an embryo, consisting of a spherical layer of cells filled with fluid; a blastosphere.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Biol.) That stage in the development of the ovum in which the outer cells of the morula become more defined and form the blastoderm.
WordNet 3.0
- n. early stage of an embryo produced by cleavage of an ovum; a liquid-filled sphere whose wall is composed of a single layer of cells; during this stage (about eight days after fertilization) implantation in the wall of the uterus occurs
Etymologies
- From New Latin, diminutive of Ancient Greek βλαστός (blastos, "a germ, bud, sprout, shoot"), from βλαστάνειν (blastanein, "to bud, sprout, grow, properly of plants, but also of animals"). (Wiktionary)
- New Latin : from Greek blastos, bud + Latin -ula, feminine diminutive suffix. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It’s not a solid ball but a hollow one, and it is called the blastula.”
“The only people politicizing the use of embryonic stem cells are those who claim that a blastula, which is an invisible to the naked eye group of cells an embryo is not the same thing as a fetus, is a human.”
Think Progress » Michael J. Fox: ‘I Could Give a Damn About Rush Limbaugh’s Pity…I’m Not A Victim’
“The globular wall of the blastula is a real blastoderm, and consists of homogeneous (blastodermic) cells; it is not yet differentiated into the two primary germinal layers.”
“The development of most animals is characterized by distinctive stages, including a zygote, formed by the product of the first few division of cells following fertilization; a blastula, which is a hollow ball of cells formed by the developing zygote; and a gastrula, which is formed when the blastula folds in on itself to form a double-walled structure with an opening to the outside, the”
“After the egg is fertilized it becomes a blastula, which is free swimming.”
“If we say that a blastula is a human being, I can't even imagine the scale of the tragedy we've engendered just by attempting to bring new life into the world.”
“The visceral embryonic vesicle (blastocystis or gastrocystis) of a rabbit (the "blastula" or vesicula blastodermica of other writers), a outer envelope (ovolemma), b skin-layer or ectoderm, forming the entire wall of the yelk-vesicle, c groups of dark cells, representing the visceral layer or entoderm.”
“The characteristic embryonic form that the developing mammal now exhibits has up to the present usually been called the "blastula”
“What is called the "blastula" of the mammal and the real blastula of the amphioxus and many of the invertebrates are totally different embryonic structures.”
“You will never sell most people on the concept zygote = blastula = embryo = fetus = baby, which is what is required of them to even “get” your “intrinsic connection.””
House Judiciary Panel Hearings on ‘Imperial Presidency’ « Antiwar.com Blog
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘blastula’.
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Ula Ula
Words ending in -ula
hula, uvula, radula, spatula, scapula, scopula, nebula, blastula, peninsula, scoopula, tarantula, tentacula and 1 more...
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Spheres
Pneumatosphere, planisphere, empyrean, bailiwick, blastula, orbicle, globose, welkin, almucantar, bathysphere, colure, blastocyst and 46 more...
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diseases that make lovely baby girl's...
usually i try to restrict this to sexually transmitted diseases, but some of the others are just so musical. Syphilis, it should be noted, would make a lovely boy's name, but that is outside the sc...
gonorrhea, chlamydia, roseola, rubella, angina, atrophy, candida, cholera, jaundice, palsy, leukemia, alopecia and 50 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Dain's Words
rabble, terminus, archaic, atavism, demiurge, waylay, syzygy, jocoserious, quark, entropy, cinnabar, shamble and 912 more...
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favorite words
sawbones, grackle, celadon, brio, loam, trull, mint, saliva, serape, frisson, impasto, reek and 547 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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Are we there yet?
These have some growing up to do.
colt, foal, kitten, cub, pup, heifer, larva, imago, veliger, trochophore, grub, maggot and 178 more...
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redchuck's Words
diagetic, melungeon, palimpsest, y'all, fandango, corpuscule, dibble, bedouin, flanger, antediluvian, camphor, nadir and 69 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for blastula.
bilby "When you’re twisting balloons for children, never tell them what you’re making. The majority of the finished products—despite your best attempts—almost always look like a dog, a blastula, or something vaguely phallic. If you identify what you’re actually attempting to make, the children will respond to your finished product with, 'That doesn’t look like a insert animal name…' But if you make the animals and then ask, 'What does it look like to you?' the child’s imagination will take over, turning the blue, four-legged balloon into Blue from Blue’s Clues, the blastula into a Pokemon, and the phallic object into an elephant. You’ll also get bonus points because you were so cool for making exactly what they wanted."
- 'Tricks Of The Trade', Matthew Baldwin, 22 Dec 2007. Dec 23, 2007
brtom "Empty of everything, in a hum of sempiternal readiness for that soul-wilting, muse-recoiling Jawohl, Herr Kommandant! to shoot up one’s spinal column as quick as a blastula ..." from John Latta's Isola di Rifiuti Aug 3, 2007