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Corpuscle
Definitions
- 1 A minute particle; an atom; a molecule.
"[b]y mixing divers Liquors, very odd and remarkable Productions and Changes of Colours may be effected, of which no cause can be more obvious and rational than that the saline Corpuscles of one Liquor do variously act upon or unite with the tinging Corpuscles of another, so as to make them swell, or shrink, (whereby not only their bulk but their density also may be changed,) or to divide them into smaller Corpuscles, (whereby a colour'd Liquor may become transparent,) or to make many of them associate into one cluster, whereby two transparent Liquors may compose a colour'd one."
- 2 A member of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
- 3 either of two types of cells (erythrocytes and leukocytes) and sometimes including platelets wordnet
- 4 A protoplasmic animal cell; especially, such as float free, like blood, lymph, and pus corpuscles; or such as are embedded in an intercellular matrix, like connective tissue and cartilage corpuscles.
"They gave me blood tests, of course. All kinds of blood tests testing my white corpuscles, testing my red corpuscles, testing one against the other."
- 5 A member of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
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- 6 (nontechnical usage) a tiny piece of anything wordnet
Etymology
From Latin corpusculum, diminutive of corpus (“body”).
See also for "corpuscle"
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Unscramble this word: corpuscle