noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A minute jointed filament growing among the archegonia and antheridia of mosses, or with the spore cases, etc., of other flowerless plants.

   "Spores tetrahedral, paraphyses mastoid-claviform, scales smooth, entire."

2. 2
   a sterile simple or branched filament or hair borne among sporangia; may be pointed or clubbed wordnet
3. 3
   A type of sterile cell amongst the spore-bearing asci.
4. 4
   A derivative of the roof-plate of the telencephalon.

Example

More examples

"Spores tetrahedral, paraphyses mastoid-claviform, scales smooth, entire."

Etymology

From para- + -physis.

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