cnidarian
any invertebrate animal, as a hydra, jellyfish, sea anemone, or coral, considered as belonging to the phylum Cnidaria, characterized by the specialized stinging structures in the tentacles surrounding the mouth; a coelenterate.
belonging or pertaining to the Cnidaria.
Origin of cnidarian
1Words Nearby cnidarian
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use cnidarian in a sentence
This suggests that some of the genetic machinery underlying regeneration evolved before the cnidarians split from the ancestors of more “complex” animals such as humans, Macias-Muñoz says.
Hydras can regrow their heads. Scientists want to know how they do it. | Kate Baggaley | December 8, 2021 | Popular-ScienceAnother seabed survey conducted in 2016 also found 14 xenophyophore species and 12 species of cnidarians, echinoderms, and sponges.
British Dictionary definitions for cnidarian
/ (naɪˈdɛərɪən, knaɪ-) /
any invertebrate of the phylum Cnidaria, which comprises the coelenterates
of, relating to, or belonging to the Cnidaria
Origin of cnidarian
1Collins 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 cnidarian
[ nī-dâr′ē-ən ]
Any of various invertebrate animals of the phylum Cnidaria, having a body with radial symmetry and tentacles that bear microscopic stinging capsules called nematocysts. The tentacles surround a mouth that opens into a saclike internal cavity and that is used both for ingesting food and for eliminating wastes. Cnidarians evolved in the Precambrian Era, but it is not known from what type of organism. Cnidarians include the jellyfishes, hydras, sea anemones, and corals.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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