sphero-, spher-, -sphere-

1. An instrument used to measure the curvatures of surfaces or spheres and curved surfaces; such as, a lens.
2. An instrument for determining he degree of curvature of a sphere or part of a sphere; especially, of optical lenses, or of the tools used for grinding them.

1. A congenital vision defect characterized by lenses of the eyes which are abnormally small and spherical.
2. A congenital bilateral aberration in which the eye lenses are small, spheric, and subject to subluxation (partial dislocation).

It may occur as an independent anomaly or may be associated with the Weill-Marchesani syndrome or a disorder of connective tissue that causes eye abnormalities and other physical problems.

Tiny minute marine organisms which are composed mostly of round forms: Mr. Thomas explained to his students that spherooplankton had spherical shapes, not pointed shapes.

1. A bacterial cell that assumes a spherical shape because of a partial or complete absence of the wall or a plant cell that possesses only a partial or modified cell wall.
2. A bacterium or yeast cell that has lost part of its cell wall and is, as a result, spherical in shape and more sensitive to osmosis.
3. A bacterial cell with a cell wall that has been altered or is partly missing, resulting in a spherical shape.

A spherical lens decentered to produce a prismatic effect, or a combined spherical lens and prism.

A condition in which the face is disproportionately round.

Having rounded and full buttocks.

Spherooid sperms lacing an elongated tail, in contrast to the threadlike, tailed sperm of human and other mammals

A lens having one surface that is a part of a sphere, while the other is a part of a torus (a doughnut-shaped geometric surface generated by rotating a circle around a line in the same plane as the circle but not intersecting it).

1. A spherule or small sphere.
2. A small spherical spicule or a small hard needle-shaped part.

A descriptive term for a miniature sphere or globule.

Covered with small spheres.

1. A minute or very small sphere, ball, globule, structure.
2. A small sphere or spherical body; for example, quicksilver, when poured out on a level surface, divides itself into many minute spherules.

1. A spherical body or coarsely crystalline aggregate having a radial internal structure arranged around one or more centers.
2. A small, usually spheroidal body consisting of radiating crystals, found in obsidian and other glassy lava rocks.
3. In petrology (science of stones), small, rounded bodies that commonly occur in vitreous igneous rocks.

They are often visible in specimens of obsidian, pitchstone, and rhyolite as globules about the size of millet seed or rice grain, with a duller luster than the surrounding glassy base of the rock.

In the solidification of polymer melts, the formation of polycrystalline aggregates consisting of chain-folded lamellae; that is, radiating outward from nucleating centers.

Spherulites are important structural units that fix the scale at which there is coordination in local orientation and cooperative plasticity during deformation.