mollusc

US mollusk

/ (ˈmɒləsk) /


noun
  1. any invertebrate of the phylum Mollusca, having a soft unsegmented body and often a shell, secreted by a fold of skin (the mantle). The group includes the gastropods (snails, slugs, etc), bivalves (clams, mussels, etc), and cephalopods (cuttlefish, octopuses, etc)

Origin of mollusc

1
C18: via New Latin from Latin molluscus, from mollis soft

Derived forms of mollusc

  • molluscan or US molluskan (mɒˈlʌskən), adjective, noun
  • mollusc-like or US mollusk-like, adjective

Words Nearby mollusc

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use mollusc in a sentence

  • They were as two horns which the sluggish heath had put forth from its crown, like a mollusc, and had now again drawn in.

    Return of the Native | Thomas Hardy
  • Some of these holes are the empty burrows of a boring mollusc, while others still contain the living animal in situ.

    The Sea Shore | William S. Furneaux
  • The mollusc Cyrena fluminalis, indicative of a sub-tropical climate, has been found in these strata.

    Prehistoric Man | W. L. H. Duckworth
  • Radula, rad′ū-la, n. the tongue or lingual ribbon of a mollusc.

  • The bent form of the embryonic heart recalls the heart of spiders; it lies at first free, as in the mollusc Anomia.

    Form and Function | E. S. (Edward Stuart) Russell