octopus
Americannoun
-
octopuses,
plural
-
octopi
plural
-
any octopod of the genus Octopus, having a soft, oval body and eight sucker-bearing arms, living mostly at the bottom of the sea.
-
something likened to an octopus, as an organization with many forms of far-reaching influence or control.
noun
-
any cephalopod mollusc of the genera Octopus, Eledone, etc, having a soft oval body with eight long suckered tentacles and occurring at the sea bottom: order Octopoda (octopods)
-
a powerful influential organization with far-reaching effects, esp harmful ones
-
another name for spider
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of octopus
1750–60; < New Latin < Greek oktṓpous (plural oktṓpodes ) eight-footed; see octo-, -pod
Explanation
An octopus is an eight-legged sea creature. Octopuses are intelligent animals, and have been shown to have great capacity for learning. (However, that doesn't stop people from grilling and eating them.) An octopus is a mollusk, which means it's a distant relation of slugs, snails, clams, and mussels. It's also a cephalopod, an animal with a large head and tentacles or arms. Of the other animals in these categories, octopuses are by far the smartest, and they're also incredibly flexible because of their lack of a skeleton or hard shell, which makes them able to squeeze through tiny spaces. The Greek root, oktopous, means "eight-foot."
Vocabulary lists containing octopus
Marine Biology - Introductory
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Marine Biology - Middle School
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Marine Biology - High School
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
OK, I’m casting my mind back to that Pirates of the Caribbean sequel where Bill Nighy had an octopus for a face.
From Slate ● Oct. 2, 2026
One day, at a job selling novelty wood roses to supermarkets and convenience stores, his boss walked in and threw a sticky octopus on the wall.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
Field had been considered the sentimental favorite in the highly competitive category for her role as Tova Sullivan, a lonely widow who forms a deep bond with an octopus at the aquarium where she works.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
The waters around Sark are home to species including European spiny lobster, rays, catsharks, octopus and pink sea fans.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
I must not be “anyone” because I felt like I was wrestling an octopus.
From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon
That outer shell is built largely from chitin, a tough natural material also found in fungal cell walls, fish scales, and the beaks of squids and octopi.
From Science Daily ● May 9, 2026
Jewish people were sometimes depicted as octopi in Nazi posters during World War Two.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2024
“Some people were turned off by the violence or the octopi scene and felt ‘Oldboy’ was too much of a genre film for competition,” he says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2023
As another example, the team, in partnership with the Department of Natural Resources is experimenting with octopots — small ceramic pot homes that may attract octopi, the kelp crab’s natural predator.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 8, 2023
Then you go through the backyard to a covered shed on piles over the ocean and here are the tanks for the larger animals, the sharks and rays and octopi, each in their concrete tanks.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
The women are nevertheless linked—by their resilience, their unhappy dealings with Andreas and, intriguingly, their shared fascination with octopuses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
It’s not clear when the trafficked animals might join the roughly 12,000 turtles, frogs, octopuses, penguins, sharks and other sea creatures currently on public display.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
Perhaps the most impressive discoveries are animal “cities,” including two assemblies of octopuses, dubbed Octopolis and Octlantis, found off the east coast of Australia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
A new study published in Current Biology found that octopuses can learn to use mirrors to locate food hidden from direct view, demonstrating sophisticated spatial thinking.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 5, 2026
If a thousand giant octopuses had squirted ink at the same time, at the bottom of the deepest, most sunless ocean trench, it could not have been blacker.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
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.
