acicular

English

Etymology

Latin acicula.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪkjʊlə(ɹ)

Adjective

acicular (not comparable)

Acicular leaf.

Anthodites at the Skyline Caverns in Virginia, US. The individual crystals of anthodites develop in an acicular form and often branch out as they grow.

1. Needle-shaped; slender like a needle or bristle.
   • 1992, Oliver Sacks, Migraine, Berkeley: University of California Press, revised and expanded edition, Part 5, Chapter 17, p. 279,^[1]

     Sometimes these networks have an acicular or crystalline appearance, and may grow visibly, sometimes with sudden jerks, “like frost on a windowpane,” or “primitive plants.”

2. Having sharp points like needles.
3. (botany) Of a leaf, slender and pointed, needle-like.

   the acicular foliage of coniferous trees

   • 1860, John Ruskin, Modern Painters, New York: John Wiley, Volume 5, Part 8, Chapter 3, p. 189,^[2]

     […] though fond of foliage, their trees always had a tendency to congeal into little acicular thorn-hedges, and never tossed free.

Derived terms

• acicularly

Translations

needle-shaped

• Bulgarian: игловиден (igloviden)
• Finnish: neulamainen (fi)

• Greek: βελονοειδής (el) m or f (velonoeidís)
• Portuguese: acicular (pt)

having sharp points

• Finnish: piikikäs (fi)

botany: needle-like

• Finnish: neulasmainen

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Portuguese

Adjective

acicular m or f (plural aciculares, comparable)

1. acicular (needle-shaped)

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Romanian

Etymology

From French aciculaire

Adjective

acicular m or n (feminine singular aciculară, masculine plural aciculari, feminine and neuter plural aciculare)

1. acicular

Declension

Declension of acicular

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	acicular		aciculară	aciculari	aciculare
	definite	acicularul		aciculara	acicularii	acicularele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	acicular		aciculare	aciculari	aciculare
	definite	acicularului		acicularei	acicularilor	acicularelor

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Spanish

Adjective

acicular (plural aciculares)

1. acicular

Further reading

• “acicular” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.