flagellum

[fluh-jel-uh m] /fləˈdʒɛl əm/

noun, plural flagella

[fluh-jel-uh] /fləˈdʒɛl ə/ (Show IPA), flagellums.

Biology. a long, lashlike appendage serving as an organ of locomotion in protozoa, sperm cells, etc.

Botany. a runner.

Also called clavola. Entomology. (in an antenna) the whiplike portion above the basal joints.

a whip or lash.

Origin

1800-10; < Latin: whip, lash, diminutive of flagrum a whip, scourge

Examples from the web for flagellum

So what happens is that the information that these receptors pick up gets transferred down to the motor that spins the flagellum.
It trails a second flagellum as a rudder and veers toward nutrients and sunlight.
Intelligent design is an argument by inference, and the example that proponents dote upon is the bacterial flagellum.
He doesn't know anything about why a flagellum is not irreducibly complex, or anything about geology.
For example, the bacterium flagellum or the eye cannot evolve on their own because they are irreducibly complex.
It had already been done with the bacterial flagellum and blood clotting.
He brings up the bacterial flagellum, which has been proven to be reducible.
If those making that argument failed in the case of bacteria or flagellum motors or whatever, it was for that reason.
He added that the bacterial flagellum is still irreducibly complex in the sense that the subset does not function as a flagellum.

British Dictionary definitions for flagellum

flagellum

/fləˈdʒɛləm/

noun (pl) -la (-lə), -lums

(biology) a long whiplike outgrowth from a cell that acts as an organ of locomotion: occurs in some protozoans, gametes, spores, etc

(botany) a long thin supple shoot or runner

(zoology) the terminal whiplike part of an arthropod's appendage, esp of the antenna of many insects

Derived Forms

flagellar, adjective

Word Origin

C19: from Latin: a little whip, from flagrum a whip, lash

Word Origin and History for flagellum

1852, in reference to microbes, from Latin flagellum "whip, scourge," diminutive of flagrum "whip," from PIE root *bhlag- "to strike."

flagellum in Medicine

flagellum fla·gel·lum (flə-jěl'əm)
n. pl. fla·gel·la (-jěl'ə)
A threadlike appendage, especially a whiplike extension of certain cells or organisms that functions as an organ of locomotion.

fla·gel'lar (-jěl'ər) adj.

flagellum in Science

flagellum

(flə-jěl'əm)
Plural flagella
A slender whiplike part extending from some single-celled organisms, such as the dinoflagellates, that moves rapidly back and forth to impart movement to the organism.