1A hard, pointed projection on part of a plant or animal; a spine or prickle.
Example sentencesExamples
The prickly ash is armed with spiculae, like the locust.
Some of the fibres are thickly covered with extremely minute spicula, occasionally aggregated into little tuffs; and hence they have a hairy appearance.
Others are barbed like the spicula of a bee's sting.
In certain genera with a simple spike this is clearly proved by the structure of the terminal flower or spicula.
Synonyms
needle, quill, bristle, barb, spike, prickle
1.1A sharp-pointed crystalline structure.
Example sentencesExamples
We have only to suppose, the particles which are employed in crystallization, to be endowed with a tendency to form spiculae.
The frozen moisture may fall in spiculae or crystals of ice.
The spiculae of hoar frost were of all lengths, from an inch downward.
The calcareous matter beneath the lava, and especially that forming the crystalline spicula, could not have been subjected to the effects of a passing stream.
Origin
Mid 18th century: modern Latin, diminutive form of Latin spica 'spike'.