cirrus

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun

Synonym of tendril (“a thin, spirally coiling stem that attaches a plant to its support”).
A thin tendril-like appendage, such as a barbel (“whisker-like sensory organ around the mouth”) of some fish, a cilium of some species of protists, or a foot of some crustaceans of the infraclass Cirripedia.
A principal high-level type of cloud, typically composed of thin, delicate, white filaments or wisps, or narrow bands.

Pronunciation

/ˈsɪɹəs/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cirrus.wav LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-cirrus.wav /ˈsɪɹaɪ/

Word forms

cirrus cirri

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin cirrus (“curl; fringe of clothes; mane (especially forelock) of a horse; etc”); further etymology unknown. Sense 2 (“type of cloud”) was coined by the British chemist and amateur meteorologist Luke Howard (1772–1864): see the 1803 quotation. The plural form cirri is also a learned borrowing from Latin cirrī, the nominative or vocative plural of cirrus.

Synonyms

tendril Ci

Related words

cirrate cirrated cirrhopod cirrhose cirriferous cirriform cirrigerous cirrigrade cirriped cirripede cirrocumulus cirropodous cirrostratus cirrous

Derived words

cirral cirro- cirrus-bag

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

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