meconidium
meconidium noun: a kind of gonophore produced by hydroids of the genus Gonothyraea (Campanulariidae), having tentacles, and otherwise resembling a free medusa, but remaining attached by a pedicel.
Noun
meconidium (plural meconidia)
- A kind of gonophore produced by hydroids of the genus Gonothyraea (Campanulariidae), having tentacles, and otherwise resembling a free medusa, but remaining attached by a pedicel.
- These appear as sessile medusæ resting on the top of the gonangium, there being usually two or three such structures on the top of each gonangium. These meconidia are formed very much as ordinary gonophores on the blastostyle within the gonangium, appearing at first as mere hernia-like protrusions...1900, Charles Cleveland Nutting, American Hydroids: The Campanularidae and the Bonneviellidae
- After the meconidium wall has been removed, the eggs often remain adherent to the blastostyle endoderm1973, “Publications of the Seto Marine Biological Laboratory”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)
Forms of meconidium
| plural | meconidia |
|---|
Origin of meconidium
From Ancient Greek μήκων (mḗkōn, “poppy”, due to a resemblance to poppy-capsules) + -idium.
Questions about meconidium
- What does meconidium mean?
- Meconidium means a kind of gonophore produced by hydroids of the genus Gonothyraea (Campanulariidae), having tentacles, and otherwise resembling a free medusa, but remaining attached by a pedicel.
- What part of speech is meconidium?
- Meconidium is a noun.
- What is the plural of meconidium?
- The plural of meconidium is meconidia.
Words near meconidium in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: meconidium (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.
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