INVERTEBRATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does invertebrate mean? 

• INVERTEBRATE (noun)
  The noun INVERTEBRATE has 1 sense:

1. any animal lacking a backbone or notochord; the term is not used as a scientific classification

  Familiarity information: INVERTEBRATE used as a noun is very rare.

• INVERTEBRATE (adjective)
  The adjective INVERTEBRATE has 1 sense:

1. lacking a backbone or spinal column

  Familiarity information: INVERTEBRATE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INVERTEBRATE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any animal lacking a backbone or notochord; the term is not used as a scientific classification

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("invertebrate" is a kind of...):

animal; animate being; beast; brute; creature; fauna (a living organism characterized by voluntary movement)

Meronyms (parts of "invertebrate"):

foot; invertebrate foot (any of various organs of locomotion or attachment in invertebrates)

peristome (region around the mouth in various invertebrates)

Domain member category:

exoskeleton (the exterior protective or supporting structure or shell of many animals (especially invertebrates) including bony or horny parts such as nails or scales or hoofs)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "invertebrate"):

mollusc; mollusk; shellfish (invertebrate having a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a shell)

echinoderm (marine invertebrates with tube feet and five-part radially symmetrical bodies)

peanut worm; sipunculid (small unsegmented marine worm that when disturbed retracts its anterior portion into the body giving the appearance of a peanut)

brachiopod; lamp shell; lampshell (marine animal with bivalve shell having a pair of arms bearing tentacles for capturing food; found worldwide)

Symbion pandora (only known species of Cycliophora; lives symbiotically attached to a lobster's lip by an adhesive disk and feeding by means of a hairy mouth ring; its complex life cycle includes asexual and sexual phases)

entoproct (any of various moss-like aquatic animals usually forming branching colonies; each polyp having a both mouth and anus within a closed ring of tentacles)

ectoproct (sessile mossy aquatic animal having the anus of the polyp outside the crown of tentacles)

bryozoan; moss animal; polyzoan; sea mat; sea moss (sessile aquatic animal forming mossy colonies of small polyps each having a curved or circular ridge bearing tentacles; attach to stones or seaweed and reproduce by budding)

phoronid (hermaphrodite wormlike animal living in mud of the sea bottom)

arthropod (invertebrate having jointed limbs and a segmented body with an exoskeleton made of chitin)

rotifer (minute aquatic multicellular organisms having a ciliated wheel-like organ for feeding and locomotion; constituents of freshwater plankton)

borer; woodborer (any of various insects or larvae or mollusks that bore into wood)

worm (any of numerous relatively small elongated soft-bodied animals especially of the phyla Annelida and Chaetognatha and Nematoda and Nemertea and Platyhelminthes; also many insect larvae)

comb jelly; ctenophore (biradially symmetrical hermaphroditic solitary marine animals resembling jellyfishes having for locomotion eight rows of cilia arranged like teeth in a comb)

cnidarian; coelenterate (radially symmetrical animals having saclike bodies with only one opening and tentacles with stinging structures; they occur in polyp and medusa forms)

parazoan; poriferan; sponge (primitive multicellular marine animal whose porous body is supported by a fibrous skeletal framework; usually occurs in sessile colonies)

zoophyte (any of various invertebrate animals resembling a plant such as a sea anemone or coral or sponge)

• INVERTEBRATE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking a backbone or spinal column

Synonyms:

invertebrate; spineless

Context example:

worms are an example of invertebrate animals

Domain category:

zoological science; zoology (the branch of biology that studies animals)

Antonym:

vertebrate (having a backbone or spinal column)

 Context examples 

Many marine invertebrates depend on vision to find food and shelter and to avoid predators, especially in their early life stages when they are planktonic.

(Low ocean oxygen levels can blind sea creatures, National Science Foundation)

Maintenance of invertebrate tissue after removal from the body, by placing in a vessel with a sterile nutritive medium.

(Culturing, In Vitro Invertebrate, NCI Thesaurus)

MLN51 is well conserved between vertebrate and invertebrate species suggesting an important function.

(MLN51 Protein, NCI Thesaurus)

They infect both vertebrates and invertebrates.

(Parvovirus, NCI Thesaurus)

From the video shot by the Newcastle team, Linley said it was clear there are lots of invertebrate prey down there, and the snailfish are the top predator.

(Three New Species of Fish Found at Bottom of Pacific Ocean, VOA)

Shared with several vertebrate and invertebrate proteins, the MLLT4 GLGF motif may be involved in signal transduction at special cell-cell junctions.

(AF-6 Protein, NCI Thesaurus)

The research reveals striking differences between genome of the octopus and other invertebrates.

(First-ever octopus genome sequenced, NSF)

Barmah forest viruses are found in both vertebrates and invertebrates, and cause infectious arthritis, encephalitis, rashes and fever in humans.

(Barmah Forest Virus, NCI Thesaurus)

The taxonomic phylum whose members are invertebrates with hard exoskeletons and segmented joints.

(Arthropoda, NCI Thesaurus)

In reference to organisms: Many natural clones are produced by plants and (mostly invertebrate) animals.

(Clone, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)