MOLLUSC

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mollusc mean? 

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

1. invertebrate having a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a shell

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• MOLLUSC (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Invertebrate having a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a shell

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

mollusc; mollusk; shellfish

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

invertebrate (any animal lacking a backbone or notochord; the term is not used as a scientific classification)

Meronyms (parts of "mollusc"):

carapace; cuticle; shell; shield (hard outer covering or case of certain organisms such as arthropods and turtles)

shellfish (meat of edible aquatic invertebrate with a shell (especially a mollusk or crustacean))

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

scaphopod (burrowing marine mollusk)

gastropod; univalve (a class of mollusks typically having a one-piece coiled shell and flattened muscular foot with a head bearing stalked eyes)

chiton; coat-of-mail shell; polyplacophore; sea cradle (primitive elongated bilaterally symmetrical marine mollusk having a mantle covered with eight calcareous plates)

bivalve; lamellibranch; pelecypod (marine or freshwater mollusks having a soft body with platelike gills enclosed within two shells hinged together)

cephalopod; cephalopod mollusk (marine mollusk characterized by well-developed head and eyes and sucker-bearing tentacles)

Holonyms ("mollusc" is a member of...):

Mollusca; phylum Mollusca (gastropods; bivalves; cephalopods; chitons)

 Context examples 

They infect molluscs, mammals, and birds and some are transmitted by arthropod vectors.

(Flaviviridae, NCI Thesaurus)

A natural protein isolated from the marine mollusc keyhole limpet.

(Keyhole limpet hemocyanin, NCI Thesaurus)

This brought the lecturer to the great ladder of animal life, beginning low down in molluscs and feeble sea creatures, then up rung by rung through reptiles and fishes, till at last we came to a kangaroo-rat, a creature which brought forth its young alive, the direct ancestor of all mammals, and presumably, therefore, of everyone in the audience.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)