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Showing results for caecilian. Search instead for caeciliadae.
Synonyms

caecilian

American  
[see-sil-ee-uhn] / siˈsɪl i ən /

noun

  1. Also called blindworm.  a legless, wormlike tropical amphibian of the order Gymnophiona (formerly Apoda), spending most of its life underground and usually almost blind.

adjective

  1. pertaining to or characteristic of a caecilian.

caecilian British  
/ siːˈsɪlɪən /

noun

  1. any tropical limbless cylindrical amphibian of the order Apoda (or Gymnophiona ), resembling earthworms and inhabiting moist soil

"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

Etymology

Origin of caecilian

1875–80; < Latin caecili ( a ) blindworm + -an

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.

Two red-tailed coral snakes have been observed competing over a caecilian in the first documented wild case of kleptoparasitism within the family Elapidae.

From Science Daily • Mar. 26, 2024

“It’s like they’re from another planet,” said Carlos Jared, a caecilian researcher at the Butantan Institute in São Paulo, Brazil, and an author of the study.

From New York Times • Mar. 7, 2024

A new species of fossilized caecilian, a worm-like amphibian, has been found in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park.

From Washington Times • Jan. 26, 2023

The Cayenne caecilian, in this journalist's opinion, produced sounds a bit like exaggerated yet strangely half-hearted armpit farts, while the mata mata turtle almost sounded like a purring cat.

From Salon • Nov. 9, 2022

These include one genus and species of caecilian, one genus, including three species of salamanders, and 14 genera and 32 species of anurans.

From A Distributional Study of the Amphibians of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico by Duellman, William E.

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.