brachiopod

American

[brey-kee-uh-pod, brak-ee-] / ˈbreɪ ki əˌpɒd, ˈbræk i- /

noun

any mollusklike, marine animal of the phylum Brachiopoda, having a dorsal and ventral shell; a lamp shell.

adjective

Also brachiopodous belonging or pertaining to the Brachiopoda.

brachiopod British

/ ˈbreɪkɪəˌpɒd, ˈbræk- /

noun

Also called: lamp shell. any marine invertebrate animal of the phylum Brachiopoda , having a ciliated feeding organ (lophophore) and a shell consisting of dorsal and ventral valves See also bryozoan

"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

brachiopod Scientific

/ brā′kē-ə-pŏd′ /

Any of various marine invertebrate animals of the phylum Brachiopoda that resemble clams. Brachiopods have paired upper and lower shells attached to a usually stationary stalk and hollow tentacles covered with cilia that sweep food particles into the mouth. Brachiopods are probably related to the phoronids and bryozoans, and were extremely abundant throughout the Paleozoic Era.

Etymology

Origin of brachiopod

From the New Latin word Brachiopoda, dating back to 1830–40. See brachio-, -pod

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.

See Examples For:

brachiopod

Today, only about 400 brachiopod species remain, while an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 species of bivalves exist.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026

"This is why we eat clam chowder and we don't eat brachiopod chowder," Sperling said.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026

As researchers recently proposed in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, the collapse of the brachiopod empire exemplifies a struggle that has defined life from the start: the quest for phosphorus.

From New York Times ● Nov. 4, 2022

Dr. Jurikova and her team discovered spikes of the element boron — a proxy for acidity levels — in fossil brachiopod shells found in rocks in Italy that stretch across the extinction boundary.

From New York Times ● Nov. 18, 2020

The lower or Silurian part of the protozoic group is brachiopodiferous, trilobiferous, polypiferous, and cephalopodiferous; that is, abounding in brachiopod and cephalopod shells; in polypifers, or corals; and in trilobites, a family of crustaceans.

From The Religion of Geology and Its Connected Sciences by Hitchcock, Edward

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023