zooxanthella

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Any of the yellow pigmentary particles, or minute corpuscles of yellow coloring matter, found in certain radiolarians.
  2. Any of various typically yellow-brown dinoflagellates (originally grouped as genus Zooxanthella) now assigned to the genera Symbiodinium and Amphidinium, notably found in coral reefs.

Pronunciation

/zuːzanˈθɛlə/ /zəʊəzanˈθɛlə/ en-us-zooxanthella.ogg

Word forms

zooxanthella zooxanthellae

Etymology

From (deprecated) genus name Zooxanthella, from Ancient Greek ζῷον (zōîon, “animal”) + ξανθός (xanthós, “yellow”) + -ella.

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