Statocyst
//ˈstatə(ʊ)sɪst// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An organ of balance found in some aquatic invertebrates, consisting of a sac-like structure containing a statolith and numerous innervated setae. Ancestral to vertebrate otolith (their organ of hearing and balance).
"Despite their tiny size, statocysts encode significant information about an animal's buoyancy and swimming ability, as we know from studying statocyst variability among modern cephalopods."
Example
More examples"Despite their tiny size, statocysts encode significant information about an animal's buoyancy and swimming ability, as we know from studying statocyst variability among modern cephalopods."
Etymology
From stato- + cyst.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.