animalcule

«animalcule» in Mova's school dictionary: a tiny living thing that can only be seen with a… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (an animalcule, animalcules — old-fashioned)

meaning for a pupil

(old science) An animalcule is a tiny living thing that can only be seen with a microscope, such as a single-celled creature. tree →

sense in the lessons

Used in history of science: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in the 1670s called the microbes he saw in his microscope «animalcules». Today scientists say «microorganisms» or «microbes».

examples

• Leeuwenhoek saw animalcules swimming in a drop of pond water. tree →
• The old book describes animalcules in rainwater. tree →
• Today we call animalcules microorganisms. tree →
• The scientist was amazed by the tiny animalcules. tree →
• Animalcules were the first microbes ever seen. tree →
• Under the lens, the animalcules wriggled about. tree →

note

Old-fashioned word. Pronounced an-ih-MAL-kyool. It means «little animal», though many such creatures are not animals at all (e.g. bacteria).

In the corpora

• Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first saw tiny living things in water, which he called «animalcules», with homemade lenses in the 1670s.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «animalcule» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.