NUCLEUS • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Nucleus

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/nˈukliəs/ Listen

noun

Nucleus n. (pl. E. nucleuses, L. nuclei)

1.

A kernel; hence, a central mass or point about which matter is gathered, or to which accretion is made; the central or material portion; used both literally and figuratively. "It must contain within itself a nucleus of truth."

2.

(Astron.) The body or the head of a comet.

3.

(Bot.)

(a)

An incipient ovule of soft cellular tissue.

(b)

A whole seed, as contained within the seed coats.

4.

(Biol.) A body, usually spheroidal, in a eukaryotic cell, distinguished from the surrounding protoplasm by a difference in refrangibility and in behavior towards chemical reagents, which contains the chromosomal genetic material, including the chromosomal DNA. It is more or less protoplasmic, and consists of a clear fluid (achromatin) through which extends a network of fibers (chromatin) in which may be suspended a second rounded body, the nucleolus (see Nucleoplasm). See Cell division, under Division. Note: The nucleus is sometimes termed the endoplast or endoblast, and in the protozoa is supposed to be concerned in the female part of the reproductive process. See Karyokinesis.

5.

(Zool.)

(a)

The tip, or earliest part, of a univalve or bivalve shell.

(b)

The central part around which additional growths are added, as of an operculum.

(c)

A visceral mass, containing the stomach and other organs, in Tunicata and some mollusks.

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Etymology of 'Nucleus'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Nucleus" Quotes from Famous Books

... great deal of work. But it was work that was triumphantly rewarded, for, upon the passage into law of the Imperial Defence Act, which superseded the National Defence Act, after the peace had been signed, we were able to present the Government with a nucleus consisting of a compact working organization of more than three million British Citizens. These Citizens were men who had undergone training and seen active service. They were sworn supporters of universal ...

— The Message • Alec John Dawson

... crop mortgages, whiskey, snuff, cheap jewelry, and the like. The young man just referred to had been trained at Tuskegee, as most of our graduates are, to meet just this condition of things. He took the three months' public school as a nucleus for his work. Then he organized the older people into a club, or conference, that held meetings every week. In these meetings he taught the people, in a plain, simple manner, how to save their money, how to farm in a ...

— The Future of the American Negro • Booker T. Washington

... thanks to West Point, a well-organized staff, and well-educated officers, matters are a little improving. Congress has not been able to destroy the army, in the present war, though it did its best to attain that end; and all because the nucleus was too powerful to be totally eclipsed by the gas of the usual legislative tail of the Great National Comet, of which neither the materials nor the orbit can any man say he knows. One day, it declares war with a hurrah; the next, it denies ...

— Oak Openings • James Fenimore Cooper

... memory doesn't include that important point, but Fancher remembers it well. It was a little before my time. Goat sold out, and betrayed the others to the government in return for assistance in carrying out more limited experiments. Some of the group escaped and formed the nucleus of the rebel movement which now is centered here at the Childress Barber College. We call ourselves ...

— Rebels of the Red Planet • Charles Louis Fontenay

... these books will be as texts to educate workers; the intermediate use of the books will be as the nucleus of workingmen's libraries, collective and personal, and the last use of the Workers' Bookshelf will be to instruct and delight all ...

— When Winter Comes to Main Street • Grant Martin Overton

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