Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Resembling or forming a net or network.
  • adjective Relating to or being an evolutionary process that involves the exchange of genes between organisms of different species, as in the formation of a new species through hybridization.
  • intransitive verb To make a net or network of.
  • intransitive verb To mark with lines resembling a network.
  • intransitive verb To form a net or network.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Netted; resembling network; having distinct lines or veins crossing as in network; covered with netted lines.
  • To form into network; cover with intersecting lines resembling network
  • In zoology, to cross irregularly so as to form meshes like those of a net: as, lines which reticulate on a surface.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Resembling network; having the form or appearance of a net; netted.
  • adjective Having veins, fibers, or lines crossing like the threads or fibers of a network
  • adjective ornamental ware made from glass in which one set of white or colored lines seems to meet and interlace with another set in a different plane.
  • adjective a micrometer for an optical instrument, consisting of a reticule in the focus of an eyepiece.
  • adjective (Masonry) work constructed with diamond-shaped stones, or square stones placed diagonally.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Network-like in form or appearance.
  • verb transitive To distribute or move via a network.
  • verb transitive To divide into or form a network.
  • verb intransitive To create a network.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective resembling or forming a network
  • verb distribute by a network, as of water or electricity
  • verb divide so as to form a network
  • verb form a net or a network

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin rēticulātus, from rēticulum, diminutive of rēte, net.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin rēticulātus ("reticulated, net-like").

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Examples

  • The redness develops in a particular pattern, as seen in the photo, called reticulate or net like.

    Gizmodo Jesus Diaz 2010

  • The phylogenetic expression of ambiguity is reticulate evolution.

    A Disclaimer for Behe? 2009

  • Andrea Lucky A new reddish-brown ant, Lordomyrma reticulate, was found in 2008, expanding the range of the genus to include Southeast Asia.

    Borneo 2010

  • The structure of living species, then, is not so much dendritic as reticulate.

    Archive 2009-01-01 Gordon McCabe 2009

  • This could be interpreted as a linear representation of history (a directed, non-reticulate network), or, as Hennig intended, as a non-nested hierarchy with ancestor-descendant relationship as the organizational criterion.

    A New Book 2010

  • This could be interpreted as a linear representation of history (a directed, non-reticulate network), or, as Hennig intended, as a non-nested hierarchy with ancestor-descendant relationship as the organizational criterion.

    A New Book 2010

  • In reticulate evolution, there is no unique notion of genealogical descent: genetic content can be distributed collectively.

    A Disclaimer for Behe? 2009

  • This could be interpreted as a linear representation of history (a directed, non-reticulate network), or, as Hennig intended, as a non-nested hierarchy with ancestor-descendant relationship as the organizational criterion.

    A New Book 2010

  • At times, reefs are identified by additional terms such as deltaic, cuspate, and reticulate.

    Coral reef 2010

  • Any amount of reticulate evolution during that split would be hard to assess, and easily obscured by strong, divergent selection on the dog lineages.

    Controversial origins of the domestic dog Darren Naish 2006

Comments

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  • "My right hand saves what my left burns

    as if what's left—that black cloud, those few

    reticulate, neglected trees—could be kept

    where everything but what you want is free."

    -from "Spring Thaw" by Cynthia Zarin, in The Ada Poems, p 19

    June 5, 2011