WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Pro"to*plasm
Part of Speech : n.
Etymology : [Proto- + Gr. (Biol.)
Definition : Defn: The viscid and more or less granular material of vegetable and animal cells, possessed of vital properties by which the processes of nutrition, secretion, and growth go forward; the so-called " physical basis of life;" the original cell substance, cytoplasm, cytoblastema, bioplasm sarcode, etc.

Note: The lowest forms of animal and vegetable life (unicellular organisms) consist of simple or unaltered protoplasm; the tissues of the higher organisms, of differentiated protoplasm.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913