ECTOPLASM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ectoplasm mean? 

• ECTOPLASM (noun)
  The noun ECTOPLASM has 2 senses:

1. (spiritualism) a substance supposed to emanate from the body of the medium during a trance

2. the outer granule-free layer of cytoplasm

  Familiarity information: ECTOPLASM used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ECTOPLASM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(spiritualism) a substance supposed to emanate from the body of the medium during a trance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("ectoplasm" is a kind of...):

emanation (something that is emitted or radiated (as a gas or an odor or a light, etc.))

Domain category:

spiritualism (the belief that the spirits of dead people can communicate with people who are still alive (especially via a medium))

Sense 2

Meaning:

The outer granule-free layer of cytoplasm

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("ectoplasm" is a kind of...):

cytol; cytoplasm (the protoplasm of a cell excluding the nucleus; is full of proteins that control cell metabolism)

 Context examples 

He informed me that he was in the "artistic game" and I gathered later that he was a photographer and had made the dim enlargement of Mrs. Wilson's mother which hovered like an ectoplasm on the wall.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)