notochord

American  

[noh-tuh-kawrd] / ˈnoʊ təˌkɔrd /

noun

Embryology.

1. a rodlike cord of cells that forms the chief axial supporting structure of the body of the lower chordates, as amphioxus and the cyclostomes, and of the embryos of the vertebrates.

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notochord British  

/ ˈnəʊtəˌkɔːd /

noun

1. a fibrous longitudinal rod in all embryo and some adult chordate animals, immediately above the gut, that supports the body. It is replaced in adult vertebrates by the vertebral column

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notochord Scientific  

/ nō′tə-kôrd′ /

1. A flexible rodlike structure that forms the main support of the body in all chordates during some stage of their development. In vertebrates, the notochord develops into a true backbone in the embryonic phase. Primitive chordates, such as lancelets and tunicates, retain a notochord throughout their lives.

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Other Word Forms

• notochordal
  adjective
• subnotochordal
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of notochord

First recorded in 1840–50; noto- + chord ¹ 5 (in the sense of “a cordlike anatomical structure”)

Example Sentences

Notochord, nō′tō-kord, n. a simple cellular rod, the basis of the future spinal column, persisting throughout life in many lower vertebrates, as the amphioxus, &c.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various

Notochord and backbone may be the most striking and apparent characteristic of vertebrates, but their predominant characteristic is brain.

From The Whence and the Whither of Man A Brief History of His Origin and Development through Conformity to Environment; Being the Morse Lectures of 1895 by Tyler, John Mason