any of various dovelike petrels of the genus Pachyptila of the southern oceans that have a serrated bill
Word origin
C19: New Latin, from Greek priōn a saw
prion in British English2
(ˈpriːɒn)
noun
a protein in the brain, an abnormal form of which is thought to be the transmissible agent responsible for certain spongiform encephalopathies, such as BSE, scrapie, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and kuru
Word origin
C20: altered from pro(teinaceous) in(fectious particle)
prion in American English
(ˈpraɪˌɑn; ˈpriˌɑn)
noun
any of a group of tiny infectious agents composed mainly or entirely of protein: though lacking in demonstrable nucleic acid, prions are capable of self-replication and are thought to be the cause of variousdegenerative diseases of the nervous systems of vertebrates, as scrapie and kuru