Find the word definition

Crossword clues for filament

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
filament
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As soon as that happens, the spider stops spinning, turns round, pulls the filament tight and secures it on her side.
▪ Contained within the iris are thousands of nerve filaments.
▪ In cooperation with nerve filaments, muscle fibers and blood vessels duplicate tissue changes, simultaneously with associated organs of the body.
▪ Notice that there are various places in Fig. 3. 3 where five filaments come together.
▪ Surveys of galaxies show large voids with virtually nothing in them, and filaments and walls made up of clusters and superclusters.
▪ The snake makes it wriggle so that the apparently disembodied filament appears to be some kind of succulent worm.
▪ When the sheet is examined in the electron microscope filaments are seen to be localized at the upper surface.
▪ Yank on one filament in the web, and the other filaments had to move, too.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Filament

Filament \Fil"a*ment\, n. [F. filament, fr. L. filum thread. See File a row.] A thread or threadlike object or appendage; a fiber; esp. (Bot.), the threadlike part of the stamen supporting the anther.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
filament

"fine untwisted thread, separate fibril," 1590s, from Modern Latin filamentum, from Late Latin filare "to spin, draw out in a long line," from Latin filum "thread" (see file (v.1)). As the name of the incandescent element in a light-bulb, from 1881.

Wiktionary
filament

n. 1 A fine thread or wire. 2 Such a wire, as can be heated until it glows, in an incandescent light bulb or a thermionic valve. 3 (context physics astronomy English) A massive, thread-like structure, such as those gaseous ones which extend outward from the surface of the sun, or such as those (much larger) ones which form the boundaries between large voids in the universe. 4 (context botany English) The stalk of a stamen in a flower, supporting the anther. 5 (context textiles English) A continuous object, limited in length only by its spool, and not cut to length.

WordNet
filament
  1. n. a very slender natural or synthetic fiber [syn: fibril, strand]

  2. the stalk of a stamen

  3. a threadlike anatomical structure or chainlike series of cells [syn: filum]

  4. a thin wire (usually tungsten) that is heated white hot by the passage of an electric current

Wikipedia
Filament

The word Filament, which is descended from Latin filum = "thread", is used in English for a variety of thread-like structures, including:

Filament (band)

Filament is a musical group from Japan that consists of Otomo Yoshihide and Sachiko M, two of the major exponents of the electroacoustic improvisation style of music.

The two played as a duo for the first time on November 5, 1995 in London, but it was not until 1997 that they began to play often together and Filament became one of their main projects. At first their work together was branded as A-102, then they used both Filament and A-102, and occasionally simply "duo," with no specific project name. Since their United States and France concert tour of May 1998, they have used the name Filament exclusively.

Filament (magazine)

Filament was a quarterly erotic magazine aimed at women, showcasing photographs of a wide variety of men. Alongside pornographic material the magazine also included discussions on topics related to sex and other aspects of life. The magazine was published in the United Kingdom and ran for 9 issues, from June 2009 to December 2011.

Usage examples of "filament".

So we both alleged a state of utter repletion, and did not solve the mystery of the contents of the cupboard,--not too luxurious, it may be conjectured, and yet kindly offered, so that we felt there was a moist filament of the social instinct running like a nerve through that exsiccated and almost anhydrous organism.

Belgian biochemist Christian de Duve, and they vary enormously in size and shape, from nerve cells whose filaments can stretch to several feet to tiny, disc-shaped red blood cells to the rod-shaped photocells that help to give us vision.

The sensitive filaments are formed of several rows of elongated cells, filled with purplish fluid.

As I was doubtful whether this was due to the cells on the upper surface of the lobes, or to the sensitive filaments, being acted on by exosmose, one leaf was first tried by pouring a little of the same solution in the furrow between the lobes over the midrib, which is the chief seat of movement.

Her mate, Fleat, hunted for fresh mushrooms amid the swaying filaments of the tall grass, his glossy red fur brilliant beneath the noontime sunlight.

Except for the blood and such roaming cells as histiocytes, every other cell in the body that carries our little friend is probably connected by very fine filaments, sort of like the axons and dendrites connecting nerve cells of the brain.

Each half of the spinal cord is divided lengthwise into three nearly equal parts, which are termed the anterior, lateral, and posterior columns, by the lines which join together two parallel series of bundles of nervous filaments, which compose the roots of the spinal nerves.

They differ also from the six sensitive filaments of Dionaea in being colourless, and in having a medial as well as a basal articulation.

He showed his colleagues, under the electron microscope, how the nonliving parasites ate their way into the filaments of a superconducting niobium compound, multiplying as more and more material was devoured.

The filaments of the pneumogastric nerve originate in the ganglia of these parts.

Sometimes it is spasmodic and irritating and particularly so when it is associated with affections of the larynx, or with asthma, involving irritation of the branches or the filaments of the pneumogastric nerve.

One variation is the different structures of ometvah muscles, which have thicker and more abundant thick and thin filaments in the measurement of one sarcomere on a muscle fiber.

Above this skyscape of salt-white castles, fibrous cirrus streamed across the sky in feathered filaments, as strong jet streams at thirty thousand feet swept ice crystals from the clouds.

He saw clusters and superclusters of galaxies, glowing softly, sprinkled over space in great filaments and sheets, so that it was as if the Universe were built of spider-web.

Flanking the Prince of Waterhorses, two dour and doughty men in ragged plaid and thick calfhide each held a pike twined with dripping red filaments of spirogyra.