spicula
/ˈspɪkjʊlə
/noun (plural spiculae /ˈspɪkjʊliː/) technical
1A hard, pointed projection on part of a plant or animal; a spine or prickle.Some of the fibres are thickly covered with extremely minute spicula, occasionally aggregated into little tuffs; and hence they have a hairy appearance....
- The prickly ash is armed with spiculae, like the locust.
- Others are barbed like the spicula of a bee's sting.
1.1A sharp-pointed crystalline structure.The calcareous matter beneath the lava, and especially that forming the crystalline spicula, could not have been subjected to the effects of a passing stream....
- We have only to suppose, the particles which are employed in crystallization, to be endowed with a tendency to form spiculae.
- The frozen moisture may fall in spiculae or crystals of ice.
Origin
Mid 18th century: modern Latin, diminutive form of Latin spica 'spike'.
- carbon credit
- carbon cycle
- Carbondale
- carbon-date
- carbon dating
- carbon debt
- carbon dioxide
- carbon dioxide snow
- carbon disulfide
- carbon disulphide
- carbon emission
- carbon fibre
- carbon fixation
- carbon footprint
- carbon-free
- carbonic
- carbonic acid
- carbonic acid gas
- carbonic acid snow
- carbonic anhydrase
- carbonic oxide
- carbonic snow
- Carboniferous
- Carboniferous limestone
- carbonification