ectoplasm
Americannoun
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Biology. the outer portion of the cytoplasm of a cell.
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Spiritualism. the supposed emanation from the body of a medium.
noun
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cytology the outer layer of cytoplasm in some cells, esp protozoa, which differs from the inner cytoplasm in being a clear gel See also endoplasm
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spiritualism the substance supposedly emanating from the body of a medium during trances
Other Word Forms
- ectoplasmatic adjective
- ectoplasmic adjective
Etymology
Origin of ectoplasm
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Some of them, like me, were journalists who had dutifully showed up to watch Tiffany Haddish trade wisecracks with digital ectoplasm.
From Los Angeles Times
Arriving in Edinburgh — the fantastical Scottish capital that has long shimmered with ectoplasm — Jessie hides her seafaring coffin and ventures cautiously into town.
From Washington Post
The character of France is like a filmic ectoplasm of us and who we are, and it is in that world of the film of us that is artificial and natural.
From Salon
The novel’s ectoplasm hovers between the realms of historical horror and cultural comedy.
From Washington Post
Fighting Trumpism and other forms of fascism is like grappling with a mud monster or ectoplasm, something that is both a liquid and a solid and nearly impossible to grasp firmly.
From Salon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
