Sclereid

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A short, dead, thick-walled plant cell with a very hardened secondary wall that gives tissues such as seed coats and nut shells their firmness
2. A type of sclerenchyma cell, lacking elongation, whose heavily lignified walls make certain plant tissues such as pear grit stony and rigid
3. Among the stone cells of plants, a hardened, often branched cell found in seed coats, fruit flesh and leaves that adds strength to the plant body

Etymology: Ancient Greek had no such word. Its root, "sklēros," meant "hard" or "dry," and it appears in medical terms such as "sclerosis." The botanical term is a modern scientific coinage built from that root plus the suffix "-eid," from Greek "eidos," meaning "form" or "resemblance," the same element found in "-oid." Plant anatomists use the term for cells with very thick, lignified walls, which make them tough and gritty. The stony texture of a pear's flesh comes largely from clusters of these cells.

Synonyms: stone cell