Resembling or having the quality of gelatin; gel-like in appearance or texture.
From gelatin plus the suffix -oid (meaning 'resembling' or 'like'). This descriptive term emerged in the 19th century to classify substances with gelatin-like properties without being true gelatin.
Many substances in nature are gelatinoid—jellyfish, certain fungi, even some tree saps—and recognizing this gel-like quality helped scientists classify and understand totally different organisms and materials.
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