Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A large, coin-shaped, fossil foraminifer of the genus Nummulites, widely distributed in limestone formations from the Eocene Epoch to the Miocene Epoch of the Cenozoic.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A member of the genus Nummulites or family Nummulitidæ: used in a broad sense, generally in the plural, for a fossil nummuline shell of almost any kind. Nummulites comprise a great variety of fossil foraminifers having externally somewhat the appearance of a piece of money (hence their name), without any apparent opening, and internally a spiral cavity, divided by partitions into numerous chambers, communicating with each other by means of small openings. They vary in size from less than ⅛ inch to 1½ inches in diameter. Nummulites occupy an important place in the history of fossil shells. See
nummulitic .
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Paleon.) A fossil of the genus Nummulites and allied genera.
WordNet 3.0
- n. large fossil protozoan of the Tertiary period
Etymologies
- From New Latin Nummulītēs, type genus, from Latin nummulus, diminutive of nummus, coin, probably from Greek nomimos, customary, legal; see nem- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The nummulite rock, in the vicinity of those monuments, frequently presents a conglomerate of testacea imbedded in it, which, in some positions, resemble small seeds; and Strabo imagines they were the petrified residue of the lentils brought there by the workmen, from their having been the ordinary food of the laboring classes, and of all the lower orders of Egyptians.”
“Here and there, at Carmel and Gerizim, patches of the tertiary nummulite of”
“This limestone wave was shown to be one of a great series, running parallel with the Alps, and constituting an undulatory district, chiefly composed of chalk beds, separated from the higher limestone district of the Jura and Lias by a long trench or moat, filled with members of the tertiary series -- chiefly nummulite limestones and flysch.”
“Amongst the materials I found a fine yellow sandstone-grit and a nummulite so weathered that the shells stood out in strong relief.”
“Haines.] who have pronounced the species collected by Dr. Thomson and myself to be the same as those found in the nummulite rocks of north-west India, Scinde, and Arabia.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nummulite’.
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250 Extra Spelling Words
Some more words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
cultellarius, barouche, palanquin, badelaire, cavetto, tregetour, tergiversate, rhododendron, rhadamanthine, thyrsus, cappelletti, bradycardia and 238 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, M
metamerism, malady, margin, marauder, maverick, mercury, mirth, mandible, macerate, meteor, manumission, mica and 292 more...
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Words of Dinosaurology
This quickly got bigger and weirder than originally intended, so now it's housing terms that relate to the study of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. See also Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, Ichthy...
zygopophyses, ziphodont, plesiomorphic, cleidoic, endothermy, ectothermy, viviparous, vertebrae, cervical, dorsal, sacral, caudal and 628 more...
Tweets
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chained_bear "A fossil or extant foraminiferan of the genus Nummulites (now sometimes included in the genus Camerina) or a related genus, having a calcareous skeleton typically in the form of a flat spiral resembling a disc, and numerous in certain Tertiary strata." (OED) See also nummuline and nummulitid. And she's wonderful list of Nummulated foodstuffs! Sep 8, 2008