tendril

A few weeks later, a wispy tendril starts out, climbing up the wooden support.

From Salon ● May 9, 2026

A few painstaking moments later and he has freed his bounty—a small caterpillar perhaps an inch long, caked in earth with a reddish tendril of fungus sprouting from its head.

From National Geographic ● Jan. 4, 2024

There, poking up through the soil, was a tiny green tendril.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2023

A twisty tendril of vapor in white-to-red ombre could be seen snaking behind a bright white light in parts of South Korea’s sky Friday evening.

From Washington Times ● Dec. 30, 2022

The girl by his side stood with her hands clasped together, concealing a tendril of flame that curled stubbornly around the nail of her pinky, which happened sometimes when she was upset.

From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs

Its mouth is triangular, divided into three lips, and surrounded by sensory tendrils, giving it an appearance reminiscent of a tiny marine Sarlacc pit.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 25, 2026

So it is with Maddie, an extremely online Los Angeles striver, blond tendrils of hair hanging in her face along with the need, deep in her eyes, to become a food influencer.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026

Somehow, the tiny thin tendrils still hold on.

From Salon ● May 9, 2026

Watching the “Russian Doll” hologram, we hear green tendrils of Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du printemps” in the musical mix.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2025

He could feel the Sleer winding its waves of fear around him, like the tendrils of some carnivorous plant.

From "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman