nucleusn.[L., a kernel, dim. fr. nux, nucis, nut. Cf. Newel post.]()1. A kernel; hence, a central mass or point about which matter is gathered, or to which accretion is made; the central or material portion; -- used both literally and figuratively.()It must contain within itself a nucleus of truth. (I. Taylor.)2. (Astron.) The body or the head of a comet.()3. (Bot.) An incipient ovule of soft cellular tissue.()4. (Biol.) A body, usually spheroidal, in a eukaryotic cell, distinguished from the surrounding protoplasm by a difference in refrangibility and in behavior towards chemical reagents, which contains the chromosomal genetic material, including the chromosomal DNA. It is more or less protoplasmic, and consists of a clear fluid (achromatin) through which extends a network of fibers (chromatin) in which may be suspended a second rounded body, the nucleolus (see Nucleoplasm). See Cell division, under Division.()()5. (Zol.) The tip, or earliest part, of a univalve or bivalve shell.()