notochord

American  

[noh-tuh-kawrd] / ˈnoʊ təˌkɔrd /

noun

Embryology.

1. a rodlike cord of cells that forms the chief axial supporting structure of the body of the lower chordates, as amphioxus and the cyclostomes, and of the embryos of the vertebrates.

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notochord British  

/ ˈnəʊtəˌkɔːd /

noun

1. a fibrous longitudinal rod in all embryo and some adult chordate animals, immediately above the gut, that supports the body. It is replaced in adult vertebrates by the vertebral column

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notochord Scientific  

/ nō′tə-kôrd′ /

1. A flexible rodlike structure that forms the main support of the body in all chordates during some stage of their development. In vertebrates, the notochord develops into a true backbone in the embryonic phase. Primitive chordates, such as lancelets and tunicates, retain a notochord throughout their lives.

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Other Word Forms

• notochordal
  adjective
• subnotochordal
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of notochord

First recorded in 1840–50; noto- + chord ¹ 5 (in the sense of “a cordlike anatomical structure”)

Example Sentences

Notochord and backbone may be the most striking and apparent characteristic of vertebrates, but their predominant characteristic is brain.

From The Whence and the Whither of Man A Brief History of His Origin and Development through Conformity to Environment; Being the Morse Lectures of 1895 by Tyler, John Mason

Notochord, nō′tō-kord, n. a simple cellular rod, the basis of the future spinal column, persisting throughout life in many lower vertebrates, as the amphioxus, &c.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various