Wednesday Word: Spicule

[calzephyr]

Spicule - noun.

Today I learned about spicule while reading the tooth extraction consent form from my dentist. It turns out spicule can mean:

• a small, needle-like body or body part


• a structural element, as it were, in marine and freshwater invertebrates
  
• a long, gas jet rising from the sun's surface, often hundreds of miles in diameter

I signed the consent form and hope that no bone spicules will trouble me! Pictured below is the spicule of a sea sponge.

By Hannes Grobe - Own work, CC BY 3.0, Link