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plankton

UK/ˈplæŋ(k).tən/US/ˈplæŋ(k).tən/
nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,733 of 15,258neutral

Plankton is the drifting cloud of tiny life that feeds the sea. Feed on plankton, a plankton bloom, rich in plankton.

The plant kind produces something like half the oxygen on earth, which is more than every forest together. The word covers anything that drifts rather than swims, so it includes jellyfish and the young of fish. The Greek means drifting.

Jay Nadeau, Chris Lindensmith, Jody W. Deming, Vicente I. Fernandez, and Roman Stocker. Image courtesy of David Liittschwager. · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of plankton

  1. 1nounplanktonThe tiny drifting life of the sea.B2+

    “Whales swim with their mouths open to swallow huge amounts of plankton.”

plankton is sea life.

Where it comes from

German Plankton was coined from Greek planktos, drifting, from plazesthai, to wander. The name is about how it moves rather than what it is.

  1. Ancient Greek

    πλαγκτόν — drifting

  2. German

    Plankton

  3. English, today

    plankton

Built from

  • πλάζομαι · Ancient Greek — to wander, drift
  • πλάζω · Ancient Greek — to cause to wander, drive astray

Borrowed from German Plankton, coined by Victor Hensen. by surface analysis, πλαγκτός + -on. Ultimately from Ancient Greek πλαγκτόν (“drifting”), neuter nominative of πλαγκτός, from πλάζομαι (“to wander, drift”), from πλάζω (“to cause to wander, drive astray”). by surface analysis, plankt- + -on.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Insects & Sea Life

Practise this word

plankton in the wild

  • An individual plankton organism in the plankton is called a plankter.

    Plankton

  • Neuston that drift as water currents or wind take them, and lack the swimming ability to counter this, form a special subgroup of plankton.

    Plankton

  • There are a very large number of, often closely related or similar looking, plankton species which makes classification a challenge for scientists.

    Planktology

  • Uniquely, the CPR Survey's methods of sampling and plankton analysis remain unchanged since 1948, providing a spatio-temporally comprehensive > 70 year record of marine plankton dynamics.

    Continuous Plankton Recorder

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.