fil·a·ment / ˈfiləmənt/ • n. a slender threadlike object or fiber, esp. one found in animal or plant structures: a filament of cellulose. ∎  a conducting wire or thread with a high melting point, forming part of an electric bulb or vacuum tube and heated or made incandescent by an electric current. ∎  Bot. the slender part of a stamen that supports the anther. ∎  Astron. a narrow streamer from the sun's chromosphere or in its corona. ∎ Astron. a narrow streamer of gas in an interstellar cloud or nebula.DERIVATIVES: fil·a·men·ta·ry / ˌfiləˈmentərē/ adj.fil·a·men·tous / -ˌmentəs/ adj.

filament
1. (in zoology) A long slender hairlike structure, such as any of the barbs of a bird's feather.

2. (in botany) The stalk of the stamen in a flower. It bears the anther and consists mainly of conducting tissue.

3. (in cell biology) See intermediate filament; microfilament.

filament
1. One of the strands of protein, variously grouped according to diameter (in the range 4–15 nm), found in many types of cell. Their functional significance is incompletely understood, but since they are largely composed of the contractile proteins actin and/or myosin it is presumed that the motility of the cell or its contents forms part of their role.

2. The stalk of a stamen, which bears the anther.

3. A line of algal cells forming a thread-like structure.

filament
1. A thin strand (e.g. of a feather or gill).

2. One of the strands of protein, variously grouped according to diameter (in the range 4–15 nm), found in many types of cell. Their functional significance is incompletely understood, but since they are largely composed of the contractile proteins actin and/or myosin it is presumed that the motility of the cell or its contents forms part of their role.

filament (fil-ă-mĕnt) n. a very fine threadlike structure, such as a chain of bacterial cells.
—filamentous (fil-ă-ment-ŭs) adj.