Definition of "endospore" []

• A small asexual spore, as that formed by some bacteria. (noun)
• The inner layer of the wall of a spore. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I can form an 'endospore', a little coating that protects me."
• "When I'm in my endospore I can survive very high temperatures."
• "The true spore or endospore begins with the appearance of a minute granule in the protoplasm of a vegetative cell; this granule enlarges and in a few hours has taken to itself all the protoplasm, secreted a thin but very resistive envelope, and is a ripe ovoid spore, smaller than the mother-cell and lying loosely in it (cf.figs. 6, 9, 10, and 11)."