vertebrates

[ (vur-tuh-bruhts, vur-tuh-brayts) ]


Animals that have a spinal cord enclosed in a backbone.

Notes for vertebrates

The five traditional classes of vertebrates are amphibians, birds, fishes, mammals, and reptiles. (Compare invertebrates.)

Notes for vertebrates

Human beings are vertebrates.

Words Nearby vertebrates

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

How to use vertebrates in a sentence

  • Owen says that the thymus appears in vertebrates with the establishment of the lung as the main or exclusive respiratory organ.

    Man And His Ancestor | Charles Morris
  • The only example among vertebrates is that of the beavers, members of the low order of rodents.

    Man And His Ancestor | Charles Morris
  • There remain for consideration the lesser mammals and other vertebrates whose fecundatory instruments resemble those of mammifera.

  • The amphioxus, the bridge between invertebrates and vertebrates, is not hermaphrodite.

  • Of vertebrates, we may find the bones and teeth of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.