protoplasm Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the substance of a living cell (including cytoplasm and nucleus)
    living substance.

WordNet


Pro"to*plasm noun
Etymology
Proto- + Gr. form, fr. to mold.
Definitions
  1. (Biol.) The viscid and more or less granular material of vegetable and animal cells, possessed of vital properties by which the processes of nutrition, secretion, and growth go forward; the so-called " physical basis of life;" the original cell substance, cytoplasm, cytoblastema, bioplasm sarcode, etc. ✍ The lowest forms of animal and vegetable life (unicellular organisms) consist of simple or unaltered protoplasm; the tissues of the higher organisms, of differentiated protoplasm.

Webster 1913