glomerulus (redirected from glomeruli)

glo·mer·u·lus  (gl-mry-ls)

n. pl. glo·mer·u·li (-l) Anatomy

1. A small cluster or mass of blood vessels or nerve fibers.

2. A tuft of capillaries situated within a Bowman's capsule at the end of a renal tubule in the vertebrate kidney that filters waste products from the blood and thus initiates urine formation.

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[New Latin, diminutive of Latin glomus, glomer-, ball.]

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glomerulus  (gl-mry-ls)

Plural glomeruli (gl-mry-l)

A knot of highly permeable capillaries located within the Bowman's capsule of a nephron. Waste products are filtered from the blood in the glomerulus, initiating the process of urine formation.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

glomerulus - a small intertwined group of capillaries in the malpighian body; it filters the blood during urine formation malpighian body, malpighian corpuscle, renal corpuscle - the capsule that contains Bowman's capsule and a glomerulus at the expanded end of a nephron capillary vessel, capillary - any of the minute blood vessels connecting arterioles with venules