Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A pitcher-shaped or bottle-shaped part or organ, such as the hollow tubular leaf of a pitcher plant.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun [Also less prop. Ascidia.] A genus of tunicates, typical of the principal family of the class Ascidia, some of whose species are known as sea-squirts: synonymous with Phallusia.
  • noun [lowercase; pl. ascidia (-ä).] In botany: Any tubular, horn-shaped, or pitcher-like formation, arising usually from the union of the margins of a leaf or other organ, or from the disproportionate growth of some part.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A pitcher-shaped, or flask-shaped, organ or appendage of a plant, as the leaves of the pitcher plant, or the little bladderlike traps of the bladderwort (Utricularia).
  • noun (Zoöl.) A genus of simple ascidians, which formerly included most of the known species. It is sometimes used as a name for the Ascidioidea, or for all the Tunicata.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun botany A pitcher-shaped or flask-shaped organ or appendage of a plant.
  • noun zoology One of a genus of simple ascidians, which formerly included most of the known species; sometimes used as a name for the Ascidiidae, or for all the Tunicata.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin, from Greek askidion, diminutive of askos, wineskin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

New Latin, from ascus. See ascus.

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Examples

Comments

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  • –noun, plural -cid⋅i⋅a  -sid-ee-uh Show IPA . Botany, Mycology.

    a baglike or pitcherlike part.

    July 3, 2009