From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsporespore /spɔː $ spɔːr/ noun [countable] HBPHBAa cell like a seed that is produced by some plants such as mushrooms and can develop into a new plant
Examples from the Corpus
spore• Say you see a spore in the moss; every day it could be different if you look closely.• The algal spores are airborne and blanketweed will colonise any suitable pool, irrespective of whether or not it is planted.• When first grown, the top of the fungus is coated in a black sticky jelly containing spores.• For example, the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis has the ability to produce crystalline spores which act as natural insecticides.• You can gather spores to start new ferns by folding a piece of white tissue over a frond.• Clouds of spores disperse when one touches these club-shaped structures.• If that spore contained the mutant gene, all the cells of the new plant will contain the mutant gene.• This moment of certainty lasts no longer than that; longer, perhaps, than the spore itself.Origin spore (1800-1900) Modern Latin spora, from Greek, “act of planting seeds, seed”, from speirein “to plant seeds” 