belemnite
Americannoun
noun
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any extinct marine cephalopod mollusc of the order Belemnoidea , related to the cuttlefish
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the long pointed conical internal shell of any of these animals: a common Mesozoic fossil
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Any of various extinct cephalopod mollusks of the order Belemnoidea that lived from the Triassic into the Tertiary Period. Belemnites had a large, cone-shaped internal shell with a complex structure that served as a support for muscles and as a hydrostatic device. Belemnites were closely related to the present-day squids and cuttlefishes.
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The fossilized internal shell of one of these cephalopods. Belemnites are used as index fossils.
Etymology
Origin of belemnite
1640–50; < French bélemnite, equivalent to Greek bélemn ( on ) a dart (noun derivative from base of bállein to throw) + French -ite -ite 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The belemnite, it turned out, had been discovered four years earlier by an amateur naturalist named Chaning Pearce, and the discovery had been fully reported at a meeting of the Geological Society.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
The day of the ammonite and the belemnite also now drew to a close, and only a few of these cephalopods were left to survive the period.
From The Elements of Geology by Norton, William Harmon
"I'd almost got the loveliest, biggest belemnite, and it broke into three pieces like a slate pencil."
From The Youngest Girl in the Fifth A School Story by Davis, Stanley
Another and very different form of thunderbolt is the belemnite, a common English fossil often preserved in houses in the west country with the same superstitious reverence as the neolithic hatchets.
From Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science by Allen, Grant
Cerau′nite, a belemnite; Cerau′noscope, an apparatus for imitating thunder and lightning in ancient mysteries.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
