hemichordate

[hem-i-kawr-deyt]Zoology

adjective

belonging or pertaining to the chordates of the phylum Hemichordata, comprising small, widely distributed, marine animals, as the acorn worms.

noun

a hemichordate animal, having a vertebratelike hollow nerve cord and an echinodermlike larval stage.

Origin of hemichordate

1880–85; < New Latin Hemichordata; see hemi-, chordate

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

British Dictionary definitions for hemichordate

noun

any small wormlike marine animal of the subphylum Hemichordata (or Hemichorda), having numerous gill slits in the pharynx: phylum Chordata (chordates)

adjective

[hĕm′ĭ-kôr′dāt′, -dĭt]

Any of various mostly small, wormlike marine invertebrates once thought to be chordates but now considered more closely related to echinoderms. They may constitute their own phylum, the Hemichordata. The bodies of hemichordates are divided into a feeding organ called a proboscis, a ringlike section called a collar, and a trunk. Hemichordates have a gut, circulatory system, and nervous system and are filter feeders. Acorn worms and graptolites are hemichordates.