chordate

[ kawr-deyt ]

/ ˈkɔr deɪt /

Zoology

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adjective

belonging or pertaining to the phylum Chordata, comprising animals having a notochord, as the lancelets and tunicates, as well as all the true vertebrates, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

noun

a chordate animal.

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Origin of chordate

First recorded in 1885–90; see origin at Chordata

Words nearby chordate

choral speaking, chord, chordal, chordamesoderm, Chordata, chordate, chorda tendinea, chordates, chord chart, chordee, chording

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use chordate in a sentence

The category of chordates includes wild mammals, wild birds, livestock, humans, and fish.
All the Biomass on Earth - Issue 108: Change|Iman Ghosh|December 8, 2021|Nautilus
The experiment revealed traces of bacteria, plants, arthropods, nematodes, fungi, and chordates, showing that under the right conditions, middens may be storehouses of information from across the tree of life.
What’s in a packrat’s petrified pee? Just a few thousand years of secrets.|Rachel Feltman|August 12, 2021|Popular-Science
It is in many respects the simplest in structure among Chordate animals.
A Guide to the Study of Fishes, Volume 1 (of 2)|David Starr Jordan

British Dictionary definitions for chordate

chordate

/ (ˈkɔːˌdeɪt) /

noun

any animal of the phylum Chordata, including the vertebrates and protochordates, characterized by a notochord, dorsal tubular nerve cord, and pharyngeal gill slits

adjective

of, relating to, or belonging to the Chordata

Word Origin for chordate

C19: from Medieval Latin chordata; see chord 1 + -ate 1

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

Scientific definitions for chordate

chordate

[ kôr′dāt′ ]

Any of a large group of animals of the phylum Chordata, having at some stage of development a notochord (flexible spinal column) and nerve cord running along the back, a tail stretching above and behind the anus, and gill slits. Chordates probably evolved before the Cambrian Period and are related to the hemichordates, echinoderms, and chaetognaths. The vertebrates, tunicates, and cephalochordates are the three main groups of chordates.