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plankton - definition and meaning
Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The collection of mostly small or microscopic organisms that drift or swim weakly in a body of water, including bacteria, diatoms, jellyfish, and various larvae. Plankton is an important food source for fish and other larger organisms.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In biology: The minor animals and plants, including especially the lower organisms, that float or swim together in the water, considered collectively and in contrast, with those that live upon the bottom under the water, or on land.
- noun The minor animals and plants that float passively in the water, considered collectively and in contrast with those that swim actively. See
nekton . - noun Specifically in phytogeography, an aquatic vegetation consisting of freely floating microscopic algæ.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Biol.) All the animals and plants, taken collectively, which live at or near the surface of salt or fresh waters.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a generic term for all the
organisms that float in thesea . A single organism is known as aplankter
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the aggregate of small plant and animal organisms that float or drift in great numbers in fresh or salt water
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[German, from Greek, neuter of planktos, wandering, from plazein, to turn aside; see plāk- in Indo-European roots.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From German Plankton, coined by Viktor Hensen and derived from Ancient Greek πλαγκτός ("drifter").
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Examples
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Studies show dramatic decrease in plankton as planet warms
For third time in two days, McCain AGAIN gets facts wrong about Al Qaeda in Iraq 2008
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Studies show dramatic decrease in plankton as planet warms
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No one has ever found an adult of these puzzling crustaceans, despite the plethora of these larvae in plankton, leading generations of marine zoologists to wonder just what y - larvae grow up to be.
Archive 2008-05-01 2008
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Studies show dramatic decrease in plankton as planet warms
It's Official: OH Gay Marriage Amendment not just about Gays 2005
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This commonly occurs when wind and waves pummel the shoreline; the water movement pushes in plankton that attracts baitfish and, consequently, bass.
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Species classified as plankton feeders are increasing.
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The algae are food for plankton, which is food for jellyfish.
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As they move, currents flow around their bodies and deliver tiny floating plants and animals, called plankton, to the stinging cells on the arms or tentacles that trail behind the bell.
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One zebra mussel can consume a gallon of water a day and filter out the zoo plankton, which is also food for fish.
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As plastics break down in the oceans, they look a lot like organisms called plankton that form the base of the food chain, Cousteau said.
Scientific American 2010
Related Words
synonyms (53)
Words with the same meaning
- Iceland moss
- Irish moss
- Loch Ness monster
- alevin
- benthon
- benthos
- brown algae
- cetacean
- conferva
- dolphin
- dulse
- fingerling
- fish
- fry
- fucoid
- fucus
- game fish
- green algae
- grilse
- gulfweed
- kelp
- kipper
- lichen
- man-eater
- man-eating shark
- marine animal
- minnow
- minny
- nekton
- panfish
- phytoplankton
- pond scum
- porpoise
- red algae
- reindeer moss
- rockweed
- salmon
- sargasso
- sargassum
- scum
- sea monster
- sea moss
- sea pig
- sea serpent
- sea snake
- sea wrack
- seaweed
- shark
- smolt
- sponge
- tropical fish
- whale
- wrack
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