Dictionary
ho•mun•cu•lus
Pronunciation: (hu-mung'kyu-lus, hō-), [key]—
n.,
—pl. -liPronunciation: (-lī"). [key]
1. an artificially made dwarf, supposedly produced in a flask by an alchemist.
2. a fully formed, miniature human body believed, according to some medical theories of the 16th and 17th centuries, to be contained in the spermatozoon.
3. a diminutive human being.
4. the human fetus.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.