a|me|ba

a|me|ba «uh MEE buh», noun, plural -bas, -bae «-bee».

an extremely small and very simple animal made up of only one cell. Amebas are so small that they cannot be seen without a microscope. Many amebas live in fresh and salt water; others live in soil or as parasites in other animals. They move and take in food by forming temporary fingerlike projections (pseudopods) that are constantly changing shape. Amebas are protozoans and are usually classified as rhizopods; they consist of a shapeless mass of protoplasm enclosed by a flexible membrane and contain one or more nuclei. Also, amoeba.

╂[< New Latin amoeba < Greek amoib change]

–a|me´ba|like´, adjective.