Villus

//ˈvɪləs// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A small projection from a membrane, particularly those found in the mucous membranes of the intestines.

    "where a villus comes next to a gland the short cubical cells of the gland may be traced into the columnar cells of the villus , the hyaline border becoming more marked"

  2. 2
    a minute hairlike projection on mucous membrane wordnet
  3. 3
    One of the fine soft hairs on fruits, flowers, and other parts of plants.

Synonyms

All synonyms
tuft of hair

Example

More examples

"where a villus comes next to a gland the short cubical cells of the gland may be traced into the columnar cells of the villus , the hyaline border becoming more marked"

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin villus (“shaggy hair”).

Related phrases

chorionic villus sampling

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