medusa
noun
a saucer-shaped or dome-shaped, free-swimming jellyfish or hydra.
medusa
1 American
[muh-doo-suh, -zuh, -dyoo-]
/ məˈdu sə, -zə, -ˈdju- /
noun
Zoology.
-
medusas,
plural
-
medusae
plural
Medusa
2
American
[muh-doo-suh, -zuh, -dyoo-]
/ məˈdu sə, -zə, -ˈdju- /
noun
Classical Mythology.
-
Medusas
plural
medusa
1
British
/ mɪˈdjuːzə /
noun
Medusa
2
British
/ mɪˈdjuːzə /
noun
medusa
Scientific
/ mĭ-do̅o̅′sə /
-
medusas
plural
-
A cnidarian in its free-swimming stage. Medusas are bell-shaped, with tentacles hanging down around a central mouth. Jellyfish are medusas, while corals and sea anemones lack a medusa stage and exist only as polyps.
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Compare polyp
Medusa
Cultural
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of medusa1
1750–60; special use of Medusa, alluding to the Gorgon's snaky locks
Origin of Medusa2
< Latin < Greek Médousa, special use of médousa, feminine of médōn ruling
Vocabulary lists containing medusa
Marine Biology - Middle School
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Marine Biology - High School
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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:
A jellyfish begins its life cycle as an anemone-like creature on the sea floor before undergoing a metamorphosis and sprouting into a recognizable medusa — that Pacman ghost shape we're all familiar with.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2023
Scientists prefer the term jelly or medusa over jellyfish because the creatures are not fish.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2022
Dr. Griffith knew that her disease, like cancer, was not one disease but many, a medusa of waving tentacles.
From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2021
A black floor-length gown with undulating straps could have been a poisonous medusa, with coral-red dye bleeding down its multi-layered skirt.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 20, 2020
Then they have taken the form of a medusa.
From "The Thing About Jellyfish" by Ali Benjamin
That role was cut short, however, by Prada's acquisition of the flashy luxury label famous for its Medusa logo, owned by Capri Holdings Limited.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
In the first “Furious” episode, she explains how Medusa, the snake-haired demon who turns men to stone, got that way.
From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2026
Only much later would I realize that it wasn’t so much a smorgasbord of vendors as it was the Gorgon Medusa: When one head is removed, more sprout in its place.
From Slate ● Jan. 13, 2026
Storied designer Donatella Versace stepped down as the brand's creative chief in March after 27 years at the fashion company, known for its glamorous styles and the iconic Medusa head logo.
From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2025
At the end of the corridor, in a cross-shaped room that flickered with torchlight, was a fifteen-foot-high stone figure with a catlike face, taloned fingers, fierce tusks, and Medusa hair.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Wearing a toadstool headdress and a skirt embellished with Medusas, El Beh has one of the most striking looks — though the orange ram’s horns on Trebien Pollard are quite something, too.
From New York Times ● Jan. 23, 2022
Medusas are the successors of Bruitparif’s first-generation sensors, called Sonopodes, which rely on expensive components imported from Japan.
From The New Yorker ● May 6, 2019
The band's final two songs are I Am The King and Medusas "which sounds like it's a Greek myth but is actually about jelly fish".
From BBC ● Feb. 28, 2019
He wielded his clinical obligation like Perseus’s shield, in which a cavalcade of Medusas lost their stony power.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 4, 2015
All those silly speeches Aided away behind Hydras, Minotaurs, and Medusas.
From "Worth" by A. LaFaye
“I was able to actually collect some of those medusae last year during the bloom, but rearing gelatinous organisms is pretty difficult,” Stajner said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2024
Although beached by-the-wind sailors die in great numbers, they most probably have already reproduced and left thousands of medusae in the sea, according to Wagner.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 29, 2024
Before they adhere to the ocean’s surface, they live underwater as tiny creatures known as medusae, Wagner said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 29, 2024
The number of medusae in the olive-green water was found to be immense.
From The Ocean and its Wonders by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The larger portion of these medusae, consisting of transparent substances of a lemon-yellow colour, and globular form, appeared to possess very little power of motion.
From The Ocean and its Wonders by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The blue seafaring colonies are themselves asexual, though they bud off tiny transparent medusas that are thought to go to the deep sea and reproduce sexually there, Stajner said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2024
As the medusas shrank into little balls, sprouted polyps and began remaking their adult bodies, the scientists took snapshots of what genes they were using in each phase of their development.
From New York Times ● Sep. 6, 2022
Vivid hues that evoked the sea beds and headwear that resembled medusas continued the theme.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 1, 2022
But not all marine lakes have medusas, the bell-shape organisms you probably think of when the word "jellyfish" comes to mind.
From National Geographic ● Feb. 28, 2018
Huge medusas, exquisitely tinted, floated on the water like spread parasols.
From An Antarctic Mystery by Frances Cashel Hoey
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.
