Definitions

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

  • noun A small enclosed structure or cavity, especially.
  • noun Cytology A membrane-bound structure within a cell in which materials such as enzymes are transported or stored.
  • noun Anatomy A sac or cyst, especially one containing fluid.
  • noun Medicine A blister of the skin.
  • noun Geology A cavity formed in volcanic rock by entrapment of a gas bubble during solidification.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In petrography, a cavity in lava formed by the expansion of escaping gasbubbles, chiefly of steam.
  • noun Any small bladder-like structure, cavity, cell, or the like, in a body; a membranous or vesicular vessel or cavity; a little sac or cyst. Also vesicule.
  • noun A minute hollow sphere or bubble of water or other liquid.

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

  • noun A bladderlike vessel; a membranous cavity; a cyst; a cell.
  • noun (Bot.) A small bladderlike body in the substance of a vegetable, or upon the surface of a leaf.
  • noun (Med.) A small, and more or less circular, elevation of the cuticle, containing a clear watery fluid.
  • noun (Anat.) A cavity or sac, especially one filled with fluid.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A small convex hollow prominence on the surface of a shell or a coral.
  • noun (Geol.) A small cavity, nearly spherical in form, and usually of the size of a pea or smaller, such as are common in some volcanic rocks. They are produced by the liberation of watery vapor in the molten mass.

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

  • noun cytology A membrane-bound compartment found in a cell.
  • noun A small bladder-like cell or cavity.
  • noun anatomy A small sac or cyst or vacuole, especially one containing fluid. A blister formed in or beneath the skin, containing serum. A bleb.
  • noun anatomy A pocket of embryonic tissue that is the beginning of an organ.
  • noun geology A small cavity formed in volcanic rock by entrapment of a gas bubble during solidification.

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

  • noun a small anatomically normal sac or bladderlike structure (especially one containing fluid)

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old French vesicule, from Latin vēsīcula, diminutive of vēsīca, bladder, blister.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French vésicule or its source, Latin vēsīcula.

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Examples

Comments

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  • can be visualised as a bubble of liquid within another liquid. lysosome, vacuole

    November 14, 2010