Thallus

//ˈθæl.əs// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An undifferentiated plant body, such as in algae.

    "As it flows it takes the forms of sappy leaves or vines, making heaps of pulpy sprays a foot or more in depth, and resembling, as you look down on them, the laciniated, lobed, and imbricated thalluses of some lichens; […]"

  2. 2
    a plant body without true stems or roots or leaves or vascular system; characteristic of the thallophytes wordnet
  3. 3
    Any plant body lacking vascular tissue.

Synonyms

All synonyms
boughbranchburgeondeadwoodflagellumfork

Example

More examples

"As it flows it takes the forms of sappy leaves or vines, making heaps of pulpy sprays a foot or more in depth, and resembling, as you look down on them, the laciniated, lobed, and imbricated thalluses of some lichens; […]"

Etymology

From Ancient Greek θαλλός (thallós, “young shoot, twig”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰelh₁- (“to bloom”).

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