invertebrate


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invertebrate

without a backbone; without strength of character: She’s an invertebrate who will lie about anything to stay out of trouble.
Not to be confused with:
inveterate – firmly established by long continuance, as a disease; chronic; settled or confirmed in a habit, practice, or feeling: He’s an inveterate runner.
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree Copyright © 2007, 2013 by Mary Embree

in·ver·te·brate

 (ĭn-vûr′tə-brĭt, -brāt′)
adj.
1. Lacking a backbone or spinal column; not vertebrate.
2. Of or relating to invertebrates: invertebrate zoology.
n.
An animal, such as an insect or mollusk, that lacks a backbone or spinal column.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

invertebrate

(ɪnˈvɜːtɪbrɪt; -ˌbreɪt)
n
(Zoology) any animal lacking a backbone, including all species not classified as vertebrates
adj
(Zoology) of, relating to, or designating invertebrates
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

in•ver•te•brate

(ɪnˈvɜr tə brɪt, -ˌbreɪt)

adj.
1.
a. without a backbone or spinal column; not vertebrate.
b. of or pertaining to creatures without a backbone.
2. without strength of character.
n.
3. an invertebrate animal.
4. a person who lacks strength of character.
[1820–30; < New Latin]
in•ver′te•bra•cy (-brə si) in•ver′te•brate•ness, n.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

in·ver·te·brate

(ĭn-vûr′tə-brĭt, ĭn-vûr′tə-brāt′)
Adjective
Having no backbone or spinal column.
Noun
An animal, such as a coral, insect, or worm, that has no backbone. Most animals are invertebrates.
The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

invertebrate


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An animal without a backbone, e.g. an earthworm, or locust.
Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words by Diagram Group Copyright © 2008 by Diagram Visual Information Limited
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.invertebrate - any animal lacking a backbone or notochordinvertebrate - any animal lacking a backbone or notochord; the term is not used as a scientific classification
animal, animate being, beast, creature, fauna, brute - a living organism characterized by voluntary movement
arthropod - invertebrate having jointed limbs and a segmented body with an exoskeleton made of chitin
zoophyte - any of various invertebrate animals resembling a plant such as a sea anemone or coral or sponge
parazoan, poriferan, sponge - primitive multicellular marine animal whose porous body is supported by a fibrous skeletal framework; usually occurs in sessile colonies
cnidarian, coelenterate - radially symmetrical animals having saclike bodies with only one opening and tentacles with stinging structures; they occur in polyp and medusa forms
comb jelly, ctenophore - biradially symmetrical hermaphroditic solitary marine animals resembling jellyfishes having for locomotion eight rows of cilia arranged like teeth in a comb
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
woodborer, borer - any of various insects or larvae or mollusks that bore into wood
rotifer - minute aquatic multicellular organisms having a ciliated wheel-like organ for feeding and locomotion; constituents of freshwater plankton
mollusc, mollusk, shellfish - invertebrate having a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a shell
phoronid - hermaphrodite wormlike animal living in mud of the sea bottom
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
ectoproct - sessile mossy aquatic animal having the anus of the polyp outside the crown of tentacles
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
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
brachiopod, lamp shell, lampshell - marine animal with bivalve shell having a pair of arms bearing tentacles for capturing food; found worldwide
peanut worm, sipunculid - small unsegmented marine worm that when disturbed retracts its anterior portion into the body giving the appearance of a peanut
echinoderm - marine invertebrates with tube feet and five-part radially symmetrical bodies
invertebrate foot, foot - any of various organs of locomotion or attachment in invertebrates
peristome - region around the mouth in various invertebrates
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
Adj.1.invertebrate - lacking a backbone or spinal column; "worms are an example of invertebrate animals"
zoological science, zoology - the branch of biology that studies animals
vertebrate - having a backbone or spinal column; "fishes and amphibians and reptiles and birds and mammals are verbetrate animals"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

invertebrate

noun see crustaceans, snails, slugs and other gastropods, spiders and other arachnids

Invertebrates

Types of invertebrates  amoeba or (U.S.) ameba, animalcule or animalculum, arrowworm, arthropod, bivalve, bladder worm, box jellyfish or (Austral.) sea wasp, brachiopod or lamp shell, brandling, bryozoan or (colloquial) sea mat, catworm, white worm, or white cat, centipede, chicken louse, chiton or coat-of-mail shell, clam, clappy-doo or clabby-doo (Scot.), cockle, cone (shell), coral, crown-of-thorns, ctenophore or comb jelly, cuttlefish or cuttle, daphnia, earthworm, eelworm, gaper, gapeworm, gastropod, Guinea worm, horseleech, jellyfish, lancelet or amphioxus, leech, liver fluke, lugworm, lug, or lobworm, lungworm, millipede, millepede, or milleped, mollusc, mussel, octopus or devilfish, otter shell, oyster, paddle worm, paper nautilus, nautilus, or argonaut, pearly nautilus, nautilus, or chambered nautilus, piddock, Portuguese man-of-war, quahog, hard-shell clam, hard-shell, or round clam, ragworm or (U.S.) clamworm, razor-shell or (U.S.) razor clam, red coral or precious coral, roundworm, sandworm, scallop, sea anemone, sea cucumber, sea lily, sea mouse, sea pen, sea slater, sea squirt, sea urchin, seed oyster, soft-shell (clam), sponge, squid, starfish, stomach worm, stony coral, sunstar, tapeworm, tardigrade or water bear, tellin, teredo or shipworm, trepang or bêche-de-mer, tube worm, tubifex, tusk shell or tooth shell, Venus's flower basket, Venus's-girdle, Venus shell, vinegar eel, vinegar worm, or eelworm, water louse or water slater, water measurer, water stick insect, wheatworm, whipworm, woodborer, worm
Extinct invertebrates  ammonite, belemnite, eurypterid, graptolite, trilobite
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
Translations
لا فقاري، عديم الفِقار
bezobratlý
hvirvelløst dyr
selkärangaton
hrygglaus
bestuburis
bezmugurkaulainsbezmugurkaulnieks
omurgasız

invertebrate

[ɪnˈvɜːtɪbrɪt]
A. ADJinvertebrado
B. Ninvertebrado/a m/f
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

invertebrate

[ɪnˈvɜːrtɪbrət]
n (= creature) → invertébré m
adj [creature] → invertébré(e)inverted commas npl (British)guillemets mpl
in inverted commas → entre guillemetsinverted snobbery nsnobisme m à rebours
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

invertebrate

nWirbellose(r) m, → Invertebrat m (spec)
adjwirbellos
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

invertebrate

[ɪnˈvɜːtɪbrɪt] n & adjinvertebrato/a
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

invertebrate

(inˈvəːtibrət) adjective, noun
(an animal eg a worm or insect) not having a backbone.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
References in classic literature ?
Polly Davis, now married for better or for worse to that curious invertebrate person, Algie Wetherby, was the only real friend Claire had made on the stage.
Then last I looked at Ready; and he leant invertebrate over the rail, gasping pitiably from his exertions in regaining the poop, a dying man once more.
I judged that she had imbibed this invertebrate dialect from the natural way the names of things and people-- mostly purely local--rose to her lips.
The few observations which I was enabled to make were almost exclusively confined to the invertebrate animals.
According to a PRLC article in the Sylvatrop journal, overharvesting is the most commonly cited threat to invertebrate species.
This volume in the zoology series includes invertebrate animal taxa that are roughly speaking too small to fill their own volume and too separate from other taxa to be included in a volume on another group.
The present work focused on analyzing whether there is a relationship between marine invertebrate body weight and extinction vulnerability, as indicated by the presence/absence of species in various international conservation lists.
He received the Hynes Award based on a whole-stream warming experiment in southwest Iceland investigating the effects of warming on stream invertebrate communities and food webs.
The translucent fish-like organism lay "right at the vertebrate-invertebrate boundary" and was "perfectly positioned to help us understand how our genomes made the leap from invertebrate to vertebrate", said lead author Ozren Bogdanovic from the institute.
Review of Evolutionary Ecology of Marine Invertebrate Larvae, Tyler J.
Carol was explaining all about Mission: Invertebrate, which aims to help people understand little critters living in Royal Parks, when she delivered the gobsmacking comment.