sporocyst

[ spawr-uh-sist, spohr- ]

nounBiology.
  1. a walled body resulting from the multiple division of a sporozoan, which produces one or more sporozoites.

  2. a stage in development of trematodes that gives rise, asexually, to cercaria.

Origin of sporocyst

1
First recorded in 1860–65; sporo- + -cyst

Other words from sporocyst

  • spo·ro·cys·tic [spawr-uh-sis-tik, spohr-], /ˌspɔr əˈsɪs tɪk, ˌspoʊr-/, adjective

Words Nearby sporocyst

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use sporocyst in a sentence

  • Within this snail—Linnæa truncatula—the egg develops into a sac-like body, called a sporocyst.

  • We sometimes find the cercarian age passed over, and the young distomes appear abundantly without tails in the sporocyst.

    Animal Parasites and Messmates | P. J. Van Beneden
  • We may give more than one description of the distomian embryo as it leaves its sporocyst.

    Animal Parasites and Messmates | P. J. Van Beneden
  • When stripped of their swimming tunic, these young distomes have the form of a bag, which for a long time was called a sporocyst.

    Animal Parasites and Messmates | P. J. Van Beneden
  • The embryo, having long cili in front, and in the interior a sporocyst already full of young cercari, is shown in Fig. 44.

    Animal Parasites and Messmates | P. J. Van Beneden

British Dictionary definitions for sporocyst

sporocyst

/ (ˈspɔːrəʊˌsɪst, ˈspɒ-) /


noun
  1. a thick-walled rounded structure produced by sporozoan protozoans, in which sporozoites are formed

  2. the saclike larva of a trematode worm that produces redia larvae by asexual reproduction

  1. any similar structure containing spores

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012