belemnite
Americannoun
noun
-
any extinct marine cephalopod mollusc of the order Belemnoidea , related to the cuttlefish
-
the long pointed conical internal shell of any of these animals: a common Mesozoic fossil
-
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.
-
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
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
"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
The very form of the belemnite at once suggests the notion of a dart or lance-head, which has gained for it its scientific name.
From Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science by Allen, Grant
They rejoiced with Miss Lever, however, when she secured a fairly intact belemnite.
From The Luckiest Girl in the School by Brazil, Angela
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.
