coralline

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a branching bryozoan or hydroid that resembles coral, especially in older zoological writing

   Darwin examined a delicate coralline whose tiny cells carried movable bristles.

2. 2
   noun

   a calcareous red alga of the family Corallinaceae

   A pink coralline covered the rock beneath the shallow water.

3. 3
   adj

   of, relating to, or resembling coral or coralline algae

   Coralline growth helped bind the loose material on the reef surface.

From French corallin, from Latin corallinus, from corallium ("coral"). Naturalists extended the coral-like sense to calcareous red algae and, historically, to colonial bryozoans and hydroids that resemble coral.

Topics