Meanings
plural coccolithophores
- Any of many minute mostly marine planktonic biflagellated organisms with brown chromatophores and complex calcareous, less commonly siliceous, shells.
It was filled with a kind of golden-brown planktonic algae known as coccolithophores, whose skeletons would form the chalks that underlie parts of Britain, Belgium and France today.
2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: The First 100 Million Years, Penguin, published 2019, page 271 more example
Chalk formations such as the white cliffs of Dover are largely composed of the bodies of countless billions of coccolithophores that bloomed, died and then sank to the seabed each season for millions of years.
2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, Granta Books, published 2013, page 290
Origin
- Ancient Greekκόκκος“grain, seed”
- Englishcoccolithophore
From Ancient Greek κόκκος (kókkos, “grain, seed”) + λίθος (líthos, “stone”) + φόρος (phóros, “carry”); this compound references how the phytoplanktonic organism's life cycle results in the depositing of its microscopic seed-like calcic exoskeleton, forming calcite.
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
coccolithophore. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coccolithophore
“coccolithophore.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coccolithophore. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “coccolithophore,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coccolithophore.
Source: coccolithophore on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.