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# animalcule

«animalcule» in Mova's school dictionary: **a tiny living thing that can only be seen with a…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (an animalcule, animalcules — old-fashioned)

### meaning for a pupil

(old science) An animalcule is a tiny living thing that can only be seen with a microscope, such as a single-celled creature. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/animalcule/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

Used in history of science: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in the 1670s called the microbes he saw in his microscope «animalcules». Today scientists say «microorganisms» or «microbes».

### examples

- Leeuwenhoek saw animalcules swimming in a drop of pond water. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/animalcule/#x1)
- The old book describes animalcules in rainwater. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/animalcule/#x2)
- Today we call animalcules microorganisms. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/animalcule/#x3)
- The scientist was amazed by the tiny animalcules. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/animalcule/#x4)
- Animalcules were the first microbes ever seen. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/animalcule/#x5)
- Under the lens, the animalcules wriggled about. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/animalcule/#x6)

### note

Old-fashioned word. Pronounced an-ih-MAL-kyool. It means «little animal», though many such creatures are not animals at all (e.g. bacteria).

### In the corpora

- [Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first saw tiny living things in water, which he called «animalcules», with homemade lenses in the 1670s.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/5/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «animalcule» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/animalcule/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.