Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small cavity in the cytoplasm of a cell, bound by a single membrane and containing water, food, or metabolic waste.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A minute cell or cavity in the tissue of organisms.
- n. In anatomy, a minute space, vacuity, or interstice of tissue in which lymphatic vessels are supposed to originate.
- n. In zoology, any minute vesicle or vacuity in the tissue of a protozoan, as an amœba. Vacuoles are sometimes divided into permanent, contractile or pulsating, and gastric. The first are sometimes so numerous as to give the organism a vesicular or bubblelike appearance. The second kind exhibit regular contraction and dilatation, or pulsate. Gastric vacuoles, or food-vacuoles, occur in connection with the ingestion and digestion of food; these are formed by a globule of water which has been taken in with a particle of food, and are not permanent. See cuts under Actinosphærium, Noctiluca, Paramecium, sun-animalcule, and Cestoidea.
- n. In botany, a cavity of greater or less size within the protoplasmic mass of active vegetable cells, which is filled with water, or cell-sap as it is called. Active protoplasm possesses the power of imbibing water into its substance and, as a consequence, of increasing in size. When the amount of water is so great that the protoplasm may be said to be more than saturated with it, the excess is separated within the protoplasmic mass in the form of rounded drops called
vacuoles . In closed cells these may become so large and abundant as to be separated only by thin plates of protoplasm. As such vacuoles become larger the plates are broken through, and eventually there may be but one large vacuole surrounded by a thin layer of protoplasm, which lines the interior of the cell-wall.Bessey.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Biol.) A small air cell, or globular space, in the interior of organic cells, either containing air, or a pellucid watery liquid, or some special chemical secretions of the cell protoplasm.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a tiny cavity filled with fluid in the cytoplasm of a cell
Etymologies
- Latin vacuolum, diminutive form of vacuum. (Wiktionary)
- French, from Latin vacuus, empty; see vacuum. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In the higher plants, at least, a nucleus occurs embedded in it; a watery liquid holding salts and saccharine substances in solution fills the space called the vacuole, inclosed by the protoplasm.”
“The protoplasm is more or less extensively excavated by fluid spaces, vacuoles; one clearer circular space or vacuole, which is invariably present, appears at intervals, enlarges gradually, and then vanishes abruptly, to reappear after a brief interval; this is called the contractile vacuole (c.v.).”
“As water evaporates out of the cell, the cell draws more water into the vacuole from other cells deeper inside the tree.”
“But it's a 6-brane vacuole, and at the press of a button, it's a year later.”
“The 76th amino acid may contribute to the PfCRT's function as a CQR determinant in P. falciparum by virtue of its effect on the CQ transport activity across the food vacuole membrane.”
“Mutations in the P. falciparum digestive vacuole transmmembrane proteins PfCRT and evidence for their role in cholorquine resistance.”
“They wrap themselves around the food particle and once enclosed it is embedded within a food vacuole for digestion.”
“Ciliates have permanent contractile vacuole pathways and pores where amoebas will release them from any point along the surface of its body.”
“In fact, the parasite itself grabs the drug and concentrates it ten-thousand-fold in its digestive vacuole.”
“Mutations in the P. falciparum digestive vacuole transmembrane protein PfCRT and evidence for their role in chloroquine resistance.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘vacuole’.
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Palynology
List of terms used in the study and classification of pollen and spores - both fossil and modern.
tetrad, abporal, ectoaperture, lacuna, grain, spore, lophate, acalymmate, monad, polyad, hexad, calymmate and 513 more...
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Infinite Jest
Words taken from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
prorector, monograph, post-fourier, snuffle, rototremble, creatus, enfilade, subanimalistic, balletic, espadrilles, leonine, cirri and 1153 more...
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old faves
ones I already liked
vacuole, organelle, debauchle, voluptuous, spry, cattywampus, obscure, occlude, occult, celtic, voracious, ardently and 133 more...
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bertilak's Words
antidisestablishm..., feldercarb, wainscoting, eleemosynary, oxymoron, fuliginous, libration, lammergeier, saxifrage, ichor, lambent, smaragdine and 414 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, V
vespertine, vacuous, versipellous, valve, vatic, virogene, vigneron, vincular, verticil, vespiary, vermiculite, velamen and 128 more...
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The Diamond Age
Words from the novel by Neal Stephenson.
primer, nanosite, fabricule, aether, artifex, diamondoid, transpicuous, source, tetrahedral, lithocule, nanophone, espadrille and 68 more...
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Horrid Words
Icky words
lactate, lukewarm, vestige, fungus, gondola, critter, vacuole, guacamole, scab, juice, ghost, vespa and 5 more...
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