Wiktionary
n. (context physics English) A region of plasma held relatively stable within a magnetic field
Wikipedia
A plasmoid is a coherent structure of plasma and magnetic fields. Plasmoids have been proposed to explain natural phenomena such as ball lightning, magnetic bubbles in the magnetosphere, and objects in cometary tails, in the solar wind, in the solar atmosphere, and in the heliospheric current sheet. Plasmoids produced in the laboratory include field-reversed configurations, spheromaks, and in dense plasma focuses.
The word plasmoid was coined in 1956 by Winston H. Bostick (1916-1991) to mean a "plasma-magnetic entity":
The plasma is emitted not as an amorphous blob, but in the form of a torus. We shall take the liberty of calling this toroidal structure a plasmoid, a word which means plasma-magnetic entity. The word plasmoid will be employed as a generic term for all plasma-magnetic entities.
Usage examples of "plasmoid".
It was a plasma of raw electrons and deuterons, and the plasma had been shaped into a pencil-thin tubular plasmoid by magnetic fields which the Pyramids emitted.
I did hear some talk they might have been after those two top-secret plasmoids in your Project.
Everybody and everything associated with the Old Galactic plasmoids had been wrapped up in Federation security measures since the day the plasmoid discovery was announced.
Essentially it was a summary of reports on Hubwide rumors that nobody could claim any worthwhile progress in determining what made the Old Galactic plasmoids tick.
Back in the Manon System, when they had been discovered, the plasmoids were operating with high efficiency on the protein-collecting station which the mysterious Old Galactics appeared to have abandoned, or forgotten about, some hundreds of centuries ago.
But in some obscure way she found the plasmoids themselves and the idea of unlimited plastic life which they embodied rather appalling.
Practically everybody else seemed to feel that plasmoids were the biggest improvement since the creation of Eve.
Farn, as you know, our group has been entrusted with the care of two League plasmoids here.
Are you aware that six of the plasmoids which were distributed to responsible laboratories throughout the Hub have been lost to unknown raiders?
Mantelish and Fayle and Azol were conducting the first League investigation of the plasmoids on Harvest Moon.
As she remembered it, it was Azol who discovered that Plasmoids occasionally could be induced to absorb food.
Holati Tate said, which had not become public knowledge so far was that Professor Mantelish actually succeeded in getting some of the plasmoids on the Old Galactic base back into operation.
He was visiting another lab where they had a couple of plasmoids which actually moved now and then.
Mantelish considered to be nutritive for plasmoids, or at least for this one.
His idea is that some of the plasmoids the Old Galactics were using on Manon might have got away from them, or just been left lying around, so to speak, and could have survived till now.