Definition of pilus Pilus

pi•lus

We found 7 definitions of pilus from 5 different sources.

What does pilus mean?

Noun Plural: piluses
pilus - hairlike structure especially on the surface of a cell or microorganism
		hair a filamentous projection or process on an organism
pilus - any of the cylindrical filaments characteristically growing from the epidermis of a mammal; "there is a hair in my soup"
		hair
		filum, filament a thin wire (usually tungsten) that is heated white hot by the passage of an electric current
		mammal, mammalian any warm-blooded vertebrate having the skin more or less covered with hair; young are born alive except for the small subclass of monotremes and nourished with milk

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pilus (Noun)
A hair.
pilus (Noun)
A hairlike appendage found on the cell surface of many bacteria.

pilus
In the southwest of Messenia, was situated at the foot of Mount Ægaleos on a promontory at the northern entrance of the basin, now called the Bay of Navarino, the largest and safest harbor of Greece. In the second Messenian war the inhabitants of Pylos offered a long and brave resistance to the Spartans; but after the capture of Ira, they were obliged to quit their native country with the rest of the Messenians. It again became memorable in the Peloponnesian war, when the Athenians under Demosthenes built a fort on the promontory Coryphasium, a little south of the ancient city, and just within the northern entrance of the harbor (425 B.C.). The attempts of the Spartans to dislodge the Athenians proved unavailing; and the capture by Cleon of the Spartans, who had landed in the island of Sphacteria, was one of the most important events in the whole war.