Animalculist
//anɪˈmalkjʊlɪst// adj, noun
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A believer in the theory that the embryo exists preformed within the spermatozoon; a proponent of animalculism. historical
- 2 Someone who studies animalcules. obsolete
"All at once a botanist, already celebrated, proclaimed that he had seen the embryo forming in the grain of pollen and penetrating the ovule with the pollenical tube. This unexpected animalculist was Schleiden."
Adjective
- 1 Pertaining to animalculism. historical
"Countering ‘ovism’, the rival ‘animalculist’ school regarded spermatozoa, discovered in semen by Leeuwenhoek, as the true source of conception."
Example
More examples"All at once a botanist, already celebrated, proclaimed that he had seen the embryo forming in the grain of pollen and penetrating the ovule with the pollenical tube. This unexpected animalculist was Schleiden."
Etymology
From animalcule + -ist.
More for "animalculist"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.