Word Study
flagellum
CIDE DICTIONARY
- A young, flexible shoot of a plant; esp., the long trailing branch of a vine, or a slender branch in certain mosses. [1913 Webster]
- A long, whiplike cilium. See Flagellata. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
flagellum, n. (pl. flagella)
1 Biol. a long lashlike appendage found principally on microscopic organisms.
2 Bot. a runner; a creeping shoot.
1 Biol. a long lashlike appendage found principally on microscopic organisms.
2 Bot. a runner; a creeping shoot.
Derivative
flagellar adj. flagelliform adj.
Etymology
L, = whip, dimin. of flagrum scourge
THESAURUS
flagellum
Golgi apparatus, animal fiber, artificial fiber, aster, basal body, belt, bine, blacksnake, bough, branch, branchedness, branchiness, bullwhack, bullwhip, burgeon, capillament, cat, cell membrane, central apparatus, central body, centriole, centroplasm, centrosome, centrosphere, chloroplast, chromoplast, cilia, cilium, cirrus, cobweb, cowhide, crop, cytocentrum, deadwood, denier, fiber, fibrilla, filament, filamentule, flagella, fork, frond, gossamer, hair, hank, horsewhip, kinoplasm, knout, kurbash, lash, limb, microbody, microcentrum, mitochondrion, offshoot, pili, plasmodesmata, plastid, plastosome, quirt, ramage, ramification, rawhide, razor strap, ribosome, runner, sarment, scion, scourge, shoot, sjambok, skein, slip, spear, spherosome, spindle fibers, spray, sprig, sprit, sprout, stolon, strand, strap, sucker, suture, switch, tendril, thallus, thong, thread, threadlet, twig, vacuole, web, whip, whiplashFor further exploring for "flagellum" in Webster Dictionary Online