phycomycetes

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Same as Phycomyceteæ.

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

• noun plural (Bot.) A large, important class of parasitic or saprophytic fungi, the algal or algalike fungi. The plant body ranges from an undifferentiated mass of protoplasm to a well-developed and much-branched mycelium. Reproduction is mainly sexual, by the formation of conidia or sporangia; but the group shows every form of transition from this method through simple conjugation to perfect sexual reproduction by egg and sperm in the higher forms.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a large and probably unnatural group of fungi and funguslike organisms comprising the Mastigomycota (including the Oomycetes) and Zygomycota subdivisions of the division Eumycota; a category not used in all systems