Webster's English Dictionary

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villus

vil.lus \'vil-*s\ \'vil-.i-, -(.)e-\ n or vil.li [NL, fr. L, tuft of shaggy 
   hair - more at VELVET] pl  : a small slender vascular process : as  : one 
   of the minute finger-shaped processes of the mucous membrane of the  small 
   intestine that serve in the absorption of nutriment : one of the branching 
   processes of the surface of the chorion of the dev eloping egg of most 
   mammals that help to form the placenta