phylum

American  

[fahy-luhm] / ˈfaɪ ləm /

noun

phyla plural

1. Biology. the primary subdivision of a taxonomic kingdom, grouping together all classes of organisms that have the same body plan.

2. Linguistics. a category consisting of language stocks that, because of cognates in vocabulary, are considered likely to be related by common origin.

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phylum British  

/ ˈfaɪləm /

noun

1. a major taxonomic division of living organisms that contain one or more classes. An example is the phylum Arthropoda (insects, crustaceans, arachnids, etc, and myriapods)

2. any analogous group, such as a group of related language families or linguistic stocks

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phylum Scientific  

/ fī′ləm /

phyla plural

1. A group of organisms ranking above a class and below a kingdom.

2. See Table at taxonomy

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phylum Cultural  

1. plur. phyla One of the major divisions of the kingdoms of living things; the second-largest standard unit of biological classification. The arthropods, chordates, and mollusks are phyla. Phyla in the plant kingdom are frequently called divisions. (See Linnean classification.)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• phylar
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• phyla
  plural

Etymology

Origin of phylum

1875–80; < New Latin < Greek phŷlon tribe, stock; see phylon

Explanation

If someone asks you what you have in common with the Antarctic icefish, you can say that you both belong to the same phylum, meaning the same taxonomic group: you are both vertebrates. Biology types are probably already familiar with using the word phylum as a way to classify animals and plants. Mammals, including humans, are part of the phylum chordata, which also includes fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and birds. As you can see that’s a very broad category. Phylum comes above class and below kingdom in the biological classification system. The ranks get increasingly narrow, working all the way down to species, which is a closely related group.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

phylum phyla

Crinoids are part of the phylum Echinodermata which also boasts sea urchins and sea cucumbers.

From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2026

Nearly 30 years ago, scientists discovered a unique class of anticancer molecules in a family of bryozoans, a phylum of marine invertebrates found in tropical waters.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 22, 2024

Scientists have known for some time that animals in the phylum Cnidaria—which includes jellyfish, corals, and sea anemones—are capable of basic forms of learning when repeatedly presented with a stimulus in their environment.

From Science Magazine ● Sep. 22, 2023

However, Moysiuk says these might have been comb jellies from the Ctenophora phylum, rather than the Cnidaria phylum which includes jellyfish, corals and sea anemones.

From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2023

She teased him because it was all so pretty and melodic, and "in the same phylum as Hall and Oates," and he threatened to evict her from his room.

From "Eleanor & Park" by Rainbow Rowell

Ranjan said one field of research in particular has him excited -- phylogenetic microbiology, which uses genome analysis to reconstruct the blueprints of sulfur-using microorganisms believed to represent the oldest phyla on Earth.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 13, 2024

Flatworms and roundworms, two phyla with more than 20,000 species each, have no emoji at all.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2023

Of the nearly 600 genomes characterized, microbes represented 50 distinct phyla and 18 candidate phyla.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 28, 2023

Some lophotrochozoan phyla are characterized by a larval stage called trochophore larvae, and other phyla are characterized by the presence of a feeding structure called a lophophore.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

The determination to link together all the main phyla of the animal kingdom and to force them all into a single mould was common to evolutionary and pre-evolutionary transcendentalists alike.

From Form and Function A Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology by E. S. (Edward Stuart) Russell