| / English Dictionary |
FILAMENT
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A thin wire (usually tungsten) that is heated white hot by the passage of an electric current
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("filament" is a kind of...):
conducting wire; wire (a metal conductor that carries electricity over a distance)
Holonyms ("filament" is a part of...):
bulb; electric-light bulb; electric light; incandescent lamp; light bulb; lightbulb (electric lamp consisting of a transparent or translucent glass housing containing a wire filament (usually tungsten) that emits light when heated by electricity)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A threadlike structure (as a chainlike series of cells)
Synonyms:
filament; filum
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("filament" is a kind of...):
anatomical structure; bodily structure; body structure; complex body part; structure (a particular complex anatomical part of a living thing and its construction and arrangement)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "filament"):
hair; pilus (any of the cylindrical filaments characteristically growing from the epidermis of a mammal)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The stalk of a stamen
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("filament" is a kind of...):
stalk; stem (a slender or elongated structure that supports a plant or fungus or a plant part or plant organ)
Sense 4
Meaning:
A very slender natural or synthetic fiber
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("filament" is a kind of...):
fiber; fibre (a slender and greatly elongated substance capable of being spun into yarn)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "filament"):
barb (one of the parallel filaments projecting from the main shaft of a feather)
cobweb; gossamer (filaments from a web that was spun by a spider)
chromatid (one of two identical strands into which a chromosome splits during mitosis)
myofibril; myofibrilla; sarcostyle (one of many contractile filaments that make up a striated muscle fiber)
rhizoid (any of various slender filaments that function as roots in mosses and ferns and fungi etc)
hypha (any of the threadlike filaments forming the mycelium of a fungus)
paraphysis (a sterile simple or branched filament or hair borne among sporangia; may be pointed or clubbed)
Derivation:
filamentous (thin in diameter; resembling a thread)
Context examples:
The protein scaffolding (the network of filaments microfilaments, microtubules, intermediate filaments, and their associated proteins) that gives shape, structure, and organization to the cytoplasm and a cell its shape.
(Cytoskeleton, NCI Thesaurus)
A taxonomic family of mammalian pathogenic bacterium, which produce mycelial filaments or muriform thalli, in the phylum Actinobacteria that includes the genera Dermatophilus and Kineosphera, among others.
(Dermatophilaceae, NCI Thesaurus)
An intermediate filament that is found in the axons of neurons.
(Neurofilament, NCI Thesaurus)
An intermediate filament located in the nucleus of a cell, which plays a role in the maintenance of nuclear structure.
(Nuclear Lamin, NCI Thesaurus)
Lamins are highly conserved in evolution and members of the intermediate filament protein family.
(Nuclear Lamina, NCI Thesaurus)
A genus of enveloped, oval-shaped virions with surface filaments, in the family Poxviridae.
(Parapoxvirus, NCI Thesaurus)
This protrusion contains bundles of long, crosslinked actin filaments.
(Filopodia, NCI Thesaurus)
This protein is involved in the structure of intermediate filaments.
(Filaggrin, NCI Thesaurus)
A polypeptide derived from the Salmonella filament protein flagellin with potential radioprotective and anticancer activities.
(Entolimod, NCI Thesaurus)
This protein is involved in the formation of actin filaments.
(Fascin, NCI Thesaurus)
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