Crossword clues for nodule
nodule
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Nodule \Nod"ule\ (n[o^]d"[-u]l), n. [L. nodulus, dim. of nodus knot: cf. F. nodule.] A rounded mass or irregular shape; a little knot or lump.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 15c., from Latin nodulus "small knot," diminutive of nodus "knot" (see net (n.)). Related: Nodulated; nodulous; nodulation.
Wiktionary
n. A rounded mass or irregular shape; a little knot or lump.
WordNet
n. a small node
small rounded wartlike protuberance on a plant [syn: tubercle]
(mineralogy) a small rounded lump of mineral substance (usually harder than the surrounding rock or sediment)
Wikipedia
Nodule may refer to:
- Nodule (geology), a small rock or mineral cluster
- Nodule (medicine), a small aggregation of cells
- Root nodule, a growth on the roots of legumes
- A feature of mollusc sculpture
In medicine, nodules are solid, elevated areas of tissue or fluid inside or under the skin with a diameter greater than 0.5 centimeters. Nodules may form on tendons and muscles in response to injury. The vocal cords may also develop nodules. Nodules are normally benign and often painless, although they can affect the functioning of the organ.
Vocal fold nodules, thyroid nodules and rheumatoid nodules are examples. Furuncles and Kaposi's sarcomae are known to cause dermatological nodules.
The sexual transmitted disease (STD) gonorrhea is also known for its cause of nodules on the genitalia and mouth for those who are victim to the disease.
Smaller (less than 0.5 cm) elevated soft tissue lesions may be termed papules.
In sedimentology and geology, a nodule is small, irregularly rounded knot, mass, or lump of a mineral or mineral aggregate that typically has a contrasting composition, such as a pyrite nodule in coal, a chert nodule in limestone, or a phosphorite nodule in marine shale, from the enclosing sediment or sedimentary rock. Normally, a nodule has a warty or knobby surface and exists as a discrete mass within the host strata. In general, they lack any internal structure except for the preserved remnants of original bedding or fossils. Nodules are closely related to concretions and sometimes these terms are used interchangeably. Minerals that typically form nodules include calcite, chert, apatite (phosphorite), anhydrite, and pyrite.
In sedimentology and geology, nodular is used to describe a sediment or sedimentary rock composed of scattered to loosely packed nodules in matrix of like or unlike character. It is also used to describe mineral aggregates that occur in the form of nodules, e.g. colloform mineral aggregate with a bulbed surface.
Nodule is also used for widely scattered concretionary lumps of manganese, cobalt, iron, and nickel found on the floors of the world's oceans. This is especially true of manganese nodules. Manganese and phosphorite nodules form on the seafloor and are syndepositional in origin. Thus, technically speaking, they are concretions instead of nodules.
Chert and flint nodules are often found in beds of limestone and chalk. They form from the redeposition of amorphous silica arising from the dissolution of siliceous spicules of sponges, or debris from radiolaria and the postdepositional replacement of either the enclosing limestone or chalk by this silica.
Usage examples of "nodule".
The presence of phosphatic nodules and bituminous matter in some of the lowest azoic rocks, probably indicates the former existence of life at these periods.
The original is composed of finely veined azurite or carbonate of copper, which, although specked with harder serpentinous nodules, is almost entirely blue.
Reclamation of these mineral riches, together with mechanized recovery of the abundant phosphorite and manganese nodules from the seabed, put Forte Oceanic Resources in the forefront of American producers of rare metals.
The roots in the Michigan test produced nodules freely and without inoculating the soil by any artificial means.
Then, from the prepared flint nodules he had with him, Jondalar knapped new blades and attached them to the spear shafts with the thick glue he had made as a coating for the boat, and fresh sinew.
The nitrogen-fixing rhizobia in root nodules, the mycetomes of insects, and the enzyme-producing colonies in the digestive tracts of many animals are variations of this meticulously symmetrical symbiosis.
Beneath him, near the base of the growth, the protruding nodules that had provided precarious footing for his ascent were inflating alarmingly, like so many infected pustules on the skin of a dermatically challenged giant.
The root nodules of legumes would have neither form nor function without the masses of rhizobial bacteria swarming into root hairs, incorporating themselves with such intimacy that only an electron microscope can detect which membranes are bacterial and which plant.
The British pathologist, Sir Gordon Roy Cameron, who conducted one of these endeavors, a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, later knighted for his contributions to the field, observed that the 1947 study had employed formalin as a fixative agent for the tissues, which is not suitable for cytological studies on account of its tendency to produce artifacts of precisely the kind that had been identified as hyperplasia nodules.
They appeared to be manganese nodules of the type which is often to be found on the ocean bed.
Chronic inflammation develops at the point where the bone is bent or cracked, resulting in thickening, often producing nodules or spur-like projections which not only interfere with nasal breathing, but also act as irritants to the adjacent delicate membranes and produce many of the symptoms common to nasal catarrh.
This container held a different enzymatic solution, a cloudy soup biologically tailored to seek and destroy fat nodules, blood, and any stray strands of connective tissue.
She reached for another chalky nodule of flint and her hammerstone, and struck the outer covering.
He reached for a large nodule of flint, and with his hammerstone, he smashed it open.
Then Kiku laid out other rings for the man to wear, ivory or elastic or silken rings with nodules or bristles or ribbons or attachments and appendages of every kind, made of ivory or horsehair or seeds or even tiny bells.