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flatworm

[flat-wurm]
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noun
  1. any worm of the phylum Platyhelminthes, having bilateral symmetry and a soft, solid, usually flattened body, including the planarians, tapeworms, and trematodes; platyhelminth.

Origin of flatworm

First recorded in 1895–1900; flat1 + worm
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for flatworm

Historical Examples

  • If a flatworm be cut in two, the front piece grows out a new tail, the hind piece a new head, and two perfect worms result.

    Biology

    Edmund Beecher Wilson

  • The parasite that's doing the damage is a flatworm, a trematode called Hepatodirus hominis.

    The Lani People

    J. F. Bone

  • Such is seen in the life history of the liver fluke, a flatworm which kills sheep, and in the tapeworm.

    A Civic Biology

    George William Hunter

British Dictionary definitions for flatworm

flatworm

noun
  1. any parasitic or free-living invertebrate of the phylum Platyhelminthes, including planarians, flukes, and tapeworms, having a flattened body with no circulatory system and only one opening to the intestine
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
flatworm in Medicine

flatworm

(flăt′wûrm′)
n.
  1. Any of various worms of the phylum Platyhelminthes, including the parasitic tapeworms and flukes, characteristically having a soft, flat, bilaterally symmetrical body and no body cavity.platyhelminth
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
flatworm in Science

flatworm

[flăt′wûrm′]
  1. Any of various parasitic and nonparasitic worms of the phylum Platyhelminthes, characteristically having a soft, flat, bilaterally symmetrical body. Flatworms lack a coelom (body cavity), respiratory system, and circulatory system, but are the most primitive invertebrates to have a brain. The evolutionary history of flatworms is uncertain, but they share some basic characteristics with rotifers, nematodes, and a few other invertebrate phyla. Cestodes (tapeworms), planarians, and trematodes (flukes) are flatworms.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.