cirrus
cirrus Lexical Profile
cirrus Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A type of cloud forming wispy, filamentous tufts of ice crystals at high altitudes, typically above 20,000 feet.
"Streaks of delicate white cirrus drifted across the deep blue sky, signaling an approaching warm front."
A slender, flexible, tentacle-like appendage or projection found on certain invertebrates and fishes, such as barnacles, crinoids, or polychaete worms, used for feeding, locomotion, or sensory perception.
"The barnacle extended its feathery cirri into the current to filter microscopic plankton from the seawater."
A slender, coiling botanical tendril by which a climbing plant attaches itself to a support.
"Each leaf of the climbing palm terminates in a barbed cirrus that hooks onto surrounding branches."
• Rhymes for cirrus
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed directly from Latin cirrus, meaning 'a lock of hair, curl, or fringe of a garment.' The meteorological sense was coined in 1802 by English chemist Luke Howard in his pioneering classification of cloud types.