corpuscles

Noun

corpuscle (plural corpuscles)

1. A minute particle; an atom; a molecule.
   • [b]y mixing divers Liquors, very odd and remarkable Productions and Changes of Colours may be effected, of which no cause can be more obvious and rational than that the saline Corpuscles of one Liquor do variously act upon or unite with the tinging Corpuscles of another, so as to make them swell...1730, Isaac Newton, “The Second Book of Opticks, Part III, Proposition V”, in Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light, 4th edition, London, Kingdom of...
2. A protoplasmic animal cell; especially, such as float free, like blood, lymph, and pus corpuscles; or such as are embedded in an intercellular matrix, like connective tissue and cartilage corpuscles.
   • They gave me blood tests, of course. All kinds of blood tests testing my white corpuscles, testing my red corpuscles, testing one against the other.2017, Sam Shepard, Spy of the First Person, →ISBN, page 5

See all 4 meanings of corpuscle