Spore

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. One of the minute grains in flowerless plants, which are analogous to seeds, as serving to reproduce the species.

2. An embryo sac or embryonal vesicle in the ovules of flowering plants.

3. A minute grain or germ; a small, round or ovoid body, formed in certain organisms, and by germination giving rise to a new organism; as, the reproductive spores of bacteria, etc.

4. One of the parts formed by fission in certain Protozoa. See Spore formation, belw. Spore formation. (a) (Biol) A mode of reproduction resembling multitude fission, common among Protozoa, in which the organism breaks up into a number of pieces, or spores, each of which eventually develops into an organism like the parent form. Balfour.

5. The formation of reproductive cells or spores, as in the growth of bacilli.