Definition of "flocculent" [floc•cu•lent]

• Having a fluffy or woolly appearance. (adjective)
• Chemistry Made up of or containing woolly masses. (adjective)
• Zoology Having a soft, waxy, and woollike covering, as certain insects. (adjective)

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.

• "NGC 3521, which is 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo, is called a flocculent spiral galaxy because of the patchy, woolly look of its spiral arms."
• "Not in individual stars. produce a multi-armed and patchy spiral structure known as a flocculent spiral."
• "Before noon clouds surrounded the whole mountain, not in the vague flocculent, meaningless masses one usually sees, but in"