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noun

Diatom n.

(Bot.) One of the Diatomaceae, a family of minute unicellular Algae having a siliceous covering of great delicacy, each individual multiplying by spontaneous division. By some authors diatoms are called Bacillariae, but this word is not in general use.

A particle or atom endowed with the vital principle. "The individual is nothing. He is no more than the diatom, the bit of protoplasm."

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Etymology of 'Diatom'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Diatom" Quotes from Famous Books

... little instrument, the lens, is but natural; for the lens is at once the means by which we discover the extreme magnitude of some portion of the infinite works of the Almighty in the architecture of the heavens, and by which we appreciate to some extent the extremely minute markings of a diatom that one cannot see with the naked eye. At the same time we feel sure that there are other markings still smaller, as every increase in the power of the microscope has always rendered visible some markings still smaller than the last; and in ...

— Scientific American Suppl. No. 299 • Various

Words linked to "Diatom" : alga, class Bacillariophyceae, class Diatomophyceae, Diatomophyceae