Dinoflagellate

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of many marine protozoa of the phylum Dinoflagellata, which have two flagella.

    "Noctiluna scintillans, a tiny marine dinoflagellate, glows in the dark thanks to thousands of bioluminescent spherical organelles in its cytoplasm; gathered in millions, it can illuminate the whole sea at night."

  2. 2
    chiefly marine protozoa having two flagella; a chief constituent of plankton wordnet

Example

More examples

"Noctiluna scintillans, a tiny marine dinoflagellate, glows in the dark thanks to thousands of bioluminescent spherical organelles in its cytoplasm; gathered in millions, it can illuminate the whole sea at night."

Etymology

Borrowed from translingual Dinoflagellata (phylum name), equivalent to dino- + flagellate.

More for "dinoflagellate"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.