millipede

American  

[mil-uh-peed] / ˈmɪl əˌpid /

Or millepede

noun

• millipedes
  plural

1. any terrestrial arthropod of the class Diplopoda, having a cylindrical body composed of 20 to more than 100 segments, each with two pairs of legs.

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millipede British  

/ ˈmɪlɪˌpiːd /

noun

1. any terrestrial herbivorous arthropod of the class Diplopoda, having a cylindrical body made up of many segments, each of which bears two pairs of walking legs See also myriapod

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millipede Scientific  

/ mĭl′ə-pēd′ /

1. Any of various wormlike arthropods of the class Diplopoda, having a long body composed of many narrow segments, most of which have two pairs of legs. Millipedes feed on plants and, unlike centipedes, do not have venomous pincers.

2. Compare centipede

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• millipedes
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of millipede

1595–1605; < Latin mīlipeda (Pliny), equivalent to mīli- milli- + -peda, derivative of pēs, stem ped- foot

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Compare meaning

How does millipede compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• centipede vs. millipede

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Explanation

A millipede is a long, worm-like bug with a disturbing number of tiny legs. Some millipedes roll into a tiny ball when they're threatened — and you might roll into a tiny ball if you see one in your bedroom. Eek! Millipedes have many similarities to centipedes. Both are arthropods (not insects, but tiny animals with exoskeletons), and both have segmented bodies. Rather than a centipede's single pair of legs per segment, a millipede has two pairs. In other words, twice as many legs — which explains the name, millipede, with its roots mille, "thousand," and ped, "foot." Unlike centipedes, millipedes aren't poisonous, which doesn't mean you'll be happy to discover a family of millipedes living in your bathroom.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

millipede millipedes

However, because fresh specimens were unavailable for DNA analysis, researchers could not determine exactly where these groups belonged on the millipede family tree.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 14, 2026

The caravan looked like a mile-long millipede, Whittaker wrote.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026

Mr Prendini is the curator of the spider, scorpion, centipede and millipede collections at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, according to the museum's website.

From BBC ● May 13, 2024

The shocking pink dragon millipede may not breathe fire, but it releases cyanide.

From National Geographic ● Feb. 7, 2024

Last week, Clive Pike found half a millipede in his hamburger, still wriggling.

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell

Coconut fibers broken down by millipedes may serve as a sustainable replacement for peat moss, a material commonly used to start seedlings but often sourced from fragile wetland ecosystems.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2025

Losso compared the Walcott-Rust fossils to CT scans of modern arthropods of millipedes, isopods, and horseshoe crabs, which were also housed in the MCZ collections.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 21, 2023

New discoveries include millipedes named Beddau Beast and Maerdy Monster after the areas in which they were found.

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2023

“It’s amazing to think these millipedes are crawling in the inner cracks and crevices between little pieces of rock below our feet in Los Angeles,” said entomologist Paul Marek of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2023

Brown millipedes slept in the soles of their steel-tipped, Touchable boots.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

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