From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishamoebaa‧moe‧ba (also ameba American English) /əˈmiːbə/ noun [countable] HBa very small creature that has only one cell —amoebic adjective
Examples from the Corpus
amoeba• Find an amoeba in a drop of pondwater on a microscope slide.• On the map it looks rather like an amoeba in the process of ingesting two small droplets of water.• He starts with a hypothetical amoeba, upon which the light of the primeval dawn falls.• Place a little acid on one side, and the amoeba will ooze away from the negative stimulus.• To counter this, water is secreted into a contractile vacuole as fast as it enters the amoeba.• Others, including the amoeba, move by bulging out fingers from the main body and then flowing into them.• It is a simple program, sort of the amoeba of communications packages.• The amoeba is just as much an animal as the elephant.Origin amoeba (1800-1900) Modern Latin Greek amoibe “change” 