Algae

How to spell algae

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce algae

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does algae mean?

1. nounSimple, mostly aquatic photosynthetic organisms, ranging from microscopic single cells to large seaweeds.

Algae in a sentence

• Green algae had spread across the surface of the neglected pond.

• The aquarium filter helps keep algae from clouding the water.

Where does algae come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from the Latin alga, which meant 'seaweed' or 'wrack', the tangled plant matter that washes up on a shore. English borrowed the Latin word wholesale in the sixteenth century, keeping its original Latin grammar, so the plural is formed the Latin way as algae rather than with an English -s. Botanists adopted it as a formal term for the broad group of simple, mostly water-dwelling organisms that photosynthesise but lack true roots, stems, and leaves. The Latin origin is the source of the spelling trap: the ending is written -gae but said roughly as 'jee', which is why the silent 'a' before the 'e' is so easy to drop. The same Latin root survives in technical words such as algal and the study name algology.

How the word is built

• alg- (from Latin alga: seaweed)
• -ae (Latin feminine plural ending)