nodule

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a small node
noun small rounded wartlike protuberance on a plant
noun (mineralogy) a small rounded lump of mineral substance (usually harder than the surrounding rock or sediment)

Borrowed from Latin nōdulus (“small knot”), from nōdus (“knot”). Doublet of nodulus.

They were dry flint nodules, and he had set fire to the grass with the sparks. — "Where Angels Fear to Tread" and Other Stories of the Sea, Morgan Robertson
Stooping down, the youth laid hold on a whitish-looking nodule, of about the size of one's fist, and, holding it out to me, said, "that, Signor, is part of a Frenchman." — Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber : $b or, The influence of Romanism on trade, justice, and knowledge, J. A. (James Aitken) Wylie
As for the first subgenus, it furnished several specimens of that bizarre fish aptly nicknamed “toadfish,” whose big head is sometimes gouged with deep cavities, sometimes swollen with protuberances; bristling with stings and strewn with nodules, it sports hideously irregular horns; its body and tail are adorned with callosities; its stings can inflict dangerous injuries; it’s repulsive and horrible. — Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World, Jules Verne

Type a word, a sentence, a book title, or a link to an English article. WordNet and the Classics answer.

Try

A library of classics · a vault of words · instant etymology & meaning