acicular

English

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.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin aciculāris.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈsɪk.jə.lɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪkjʊlə(ɹ)

Adjective

acicular (not comparable)

1. Needle-shaped; slender like a needle or bristle.

   Near-synonyms: needlelike, pinlike

   • 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, chapter 3, in Modern Painters […], volume V, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, part VIII (Of Ideas of Relation:—I. Of Invention Formal.), page 189:

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

Derived terms

• acicularity
• acicularly
• nonacicular
• subacicular

Related terms

• acicle
• acicula

Translations

needle-shaped

• Bulgarian: игловиден (igloviden)
• Finnish: neulamainen (fi)
• French: aciculaire (fr) m or f
• Greek: βελονοειδής (el) m or f (velonoeidís)
• Hebrew: מַחְטָנִי (makhtaní)
• Macedonian: игловиден m (igloviden)
• Portuguese: acicular (pt)
• Romanian: acicular (ro)
• Russian: игольчатый (ru) (igolʹčatyj), игловидный (ru) (iglovidnyj)
• Turkish: iğnemsi, asiküler

having sharp points

• Finnish: piikikäs (fi)
• French: aciculaire (fr) m or f
• Russian: остроконечный (ru) (ostrokonečnyj)
• Turkish: sivri (tr), asiküler

botany: needle-like

• Finnish: neulasmainen
• French: aciculaire (fr) m or f
• Hebrew: מַחְטָנִי (makhtaní)
• Romanian: acicular (ro)
• Russian: игольчатый (ru) (igolʹčatyj)
• Turkish: iğnemsi, asiküler

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /a.si.kuˈlaʁ/ [a.si.kuˈlah]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /a.si.kuˈlaʁ/ [a.si.kuˈlah]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /a.si.kuˈlaɾ/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /a.si.kuˈlaʁ/ [a.si.kuˈlaχ]
  • (Caipira) IPA^(key): /a.si.kuˈlaɻ/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐ.si.kuˈlaɾ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐ.si.kuˈlaɾ/
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐ.si.kuˈla.ɾi/

Adjective

acicular m or f (plural aciculares)

1. acicular (needle-shaped)

Further reading

• “acicular”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “acicular”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French aciculaire.

Adjective

acicular m or n (feminine singular aciculară, masculine plural aciculari, feminine/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

Further reading

• “acicular”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aθikuˈlaɾ/ [a.θi.kuˈlaɾ] (Equatorial Guinea, Spain)
• IPA^(key): /asikuˈlaɾ/ [a.si.kuˈlaɾ] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: a‧ci‧cu‧lar

Adjective

acicular m or f (masculine and feminine plural aciculares)

1. acicular

Further reading

• “acicular”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025