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/anɪˈmalkjʊlɪst/ · noun
(historical) A believer in the theory that the embryo exists preformed within the spermatozoon; a proponent of animalculism..
All at once a botanist, already celebrated, proclaimed that he had seen the embryo forming in the grain of pollen and penetrating the ovule with the pollenical tube. This unexpected animalculist was Schleiden.
Countering ‘ovism’, the rival ‘animalculist’ school regarded spermatozoa, discovered in semen by Leeuwenhoek, as the true source of conception.
Use animalculist when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Animalculist means (historical) A believer in the theory that the embryo exists preformed within the spermatozoon; a proponent of animalculism..
The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
All at once a botanist, already celebrated, proclaimed that he had seen the embryo forming in the grain of pollen and penetrating the ovule with the pollenical tube. This unexpected animalculist was Schleiden.
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