pleuston

noun

1. The organisms that live floating at the surface of water.

   uncountable

   They^([Cnidarians]) are also the dominant organisms of the marine pleuston, providing food or substrate for a variety of other invertebrates living at the air-water interface[…].

2. Plants that live floating at the surface of water.

   uncountable

Where it comes from

From Ancient Greek πλεῦσις (pleûsis, “sailing”), from πλέω (pléō) + -on. The -t- is on analogy with the coordinate terms.

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry pleuston (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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