byssus

/ˈbɪsəs/

byssus noun: the long fine silky filaments excreted by several mollusks (particularly Pinna nobilis) by which they attach themselves to the sea bed, and from which sea silk is manufactured.

Image: Brocken Inaglory, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

byssus (usually uncountable, plural byssi or byssuses)

(usually) The long fine silky filaments excreted by several mollusks (particularly Pinna nobilis) by which they attach themselves to the sea bed, and from which sea silk is manufactured.
(usually) Sea silk manufactured from these filaments.
(usually) The stipe or stem of some fungi which are particularly thin and thread-like.

byssus meaning in Tamil

byssus in Tamil

சணல் இழை, பருத்தி இழை, மரநார் இழை, ஒட்டும் இழை நார்கள், கடற்காய்கள்

Forms of byssus

plural	byssi
plural	byssuses

Origin of byssus

From Latin byssus, from Ancient Greek βύσσος (bússos, “flax; flax cotton”), from a Semitic source cognate to Hebrew בּוּץ (būṣ, “byssus”) and Aramaic בּוּצָא (būṣā, “byssus”)

Words that rhyme with byssus

Questions about byssus

What does byssus mean?: Byssus means the long fine silky filaments excreted by several mollusks (particularly Pinna nobilis) by which they attach themselves to the sea bed, and from which sea silk is manufactured.
What is byssus in Tamil?: Byssus in Tamil is சணல் இழை, பருத்தி இழை, மரநார் இழை. See Byssus meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is byssus?: Byssus is a noun.
How do you pronounce byssus?: Byssus is pronounced /ˈbɪsəs/.
What is the plural of byssus?: The plural of byssus is byssi.

Words near byssus in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: byssus (page history and authors); byssus (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “byssus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/byssus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.