thallus

From Ancient Greek θαλλός (thallós, “young shoot, twig”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰelh₁- (“to bloom”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈθæl.əs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æləs

thallus (plural thalluses or thalli)

1. (botany) An undifferentiated plant body, such as in algae.
   • 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Spring”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:

     As it flows it takes the forms of sappy leaves or vines, making heaps of pulpy sprays a foot or more in depth, and resembling, as you look down on them, the laciniated, lobed, and imbricated thalluses of some lichens; […]

2. (botany) Any plant body lacking vascular tissue.

From Ancient Greek θαλλός (thallós). The gender is often neuter in Dutch (even though de thallus is also commonly encountered), whereas in the Greek and in other languages the word is male.

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thallus n or m (plural thalli)

1. thallus

• thallus on the Dutch Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^nl