metazoan
Americannoun
adjective
noun
adjective
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Any of the animals belonging to the subkingdom Metazoa, having a body made up of differentiated cells arranged in tissues and organs. All multicellular animals besides sponges are metazoans.
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A multicellular animal. No longer in scientific use.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of metazoan
C19: from New Latin Metazoa; see meta- , -zoa
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.
Non-metazoans lack pannexin orthologues, suggesting that these are metazoan innovations with profound expansion of this family in ctenophores.
From Nature • May 20, 2014
Bars indicate the presence or relative expansions of selected gene families in all basal metazoan lineages from the inferred urmetazoan ancestor.
From Nature • May 20, 2014
Our analysis reveals a transcriptome of high complexity that is expressed in discrete, tissue- and condition-specific messenger RNA and lncRNA transcript isoforms that span most of the genome and provides valuable insights into metazoan biology.
From Nature • Mar. 15, 2014
This overlap of expressional responses by gene families across phyla suggests a conserved metazoan stress response involving enhanced metabolism and the suppression of genes involved in reproduction.
From Nature • Mar. 15, 2014
"The existence of immortal metazoan organisms is conceivable," but their capacity for existence is influenced by conditions of the external world; this renders necessary the process of adaptation.
From The Birth-Time of the World and Other Scientific Essays by Joly, John
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.
