pollen

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: pol=len

CIDE DICTIONARY

pollen, n. [L. pollen fine flour, fine dust; cf. Gr. ].

•  Fine bran or flour.  Bailey.  [1913 Webster]
•  The fecundating dustlike cells of the anthers of flowers. See Flower, and Illust. of Filament.  [1913 Webster]

Pollen grain (Bot.), a particle or call of pollen. -- Pollen mass, a pollinium. Gray. -- Pollen sac, a compartment of an anther containing pollen, -- usually there are four in each anther. -- Pollen tube, a slender tube which issues from the pollen grain on its contact with the stigma, which it penetrates, thus conveying, it is supposed, the fecundating matter of the grain to the ovule.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

pollen, n. the fine dustlike grains discharged from the male part of a flower containing the gamete that fertilizes the female ovule.

Idiom

pollen analysis = PALYNOLOGY. pollen count an index of the amount of pollen in the air, published esp. for the benefit of those allergic to it.

Derivative

pollenless adj. pollinic adj.

Etymology

L pollen pollinis fine flour, dust

THESAURUS

pollen

androcyte, antheridium, antherozoid, male gamete, milt, protein, scum, seed, semen, seminal fluid, sperm, sperm cell, spermagonium, spermatic fluid, spermatid, spermatiophore, spermatium, spermatocyte, spermatogonium, spermatophore, spermatozoa, spermatozoid, spermatozoon