coenobium

noun coenobiums · coenobia · caenobium · cenobium · cœnobium

1. A conventual or monastic community; also, a convent or monastery. [T]his profeſſion of a ſingle life vvas propagated in Egypt by Antony, and in Syria by Hilarion; and ſpred ſo faſt, that ſoon after the time of Julian the Apoſtate a third part of Egyptians vvere got into the deſarts of Egypt. They lived firſt ſingly in cells, then aſſociated into cœnobia or convent

   Similar: cenoby, coenoby

2. broadly A fruit of a plant from either of the families Boraginaceae (the borages) or Lamiaceae which has small loculi or compartments, reminiscent of the cells in a convent or monastery. Comfrey fruit is a coenobium consisting not of two (in carpel number) but four monospermous eremes. Eremes are not opened and seed not released from pericarp falls from the plant.
3. broadly A colony of algae which acts as a single organism; a coenobe. […] M. [Louis-Félix] Henneguy finds four kinds of these colonies, which he calls cœnobiums: […] At the moment of fecundation the bundles of antherozoids are set at liberty by the dissolution of the antheridia wall; they move quickly through the water, and fix themselves on the female cœnobiums, and
4. broadly A colony of unicellular organisms (such as protozoa) which acts as a single organism. The Radiolaria are marine rhizopods, whose unicellular body always consists of two parts,— […] The individuals are usually single: in only a small minority are the unicellular organisms united in colonies or caenobia.