syncytium Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a mass of cytoplasm containing several nuclei and enclosed in a membrane but no internal cell boundaries (as in muscle fibers)

WordNet

Syn*cy"ti*um noun
Etymology
NL., from Gr. together + a hollow vessel.
Wordforms
plural Syncitia
Definitions
  1. (Biol.) Tissue in which the cell or partition walls are wholly wanting and the cell bodies fused together, so that the tissue consists of a continuous mass of protoplasm in which nuclei are imbedded, as in ordinary striped muscle.
  2. (Zoöl.) The ectoderm of a sponge.

Webster 1913