rotifer

American  

[roh-tuh-fer] / ˈroʊ tə fər /

noun

1. any microscopic animal of the phylum (or class) Rotifera, found in fresh and salt waters, having one or more rings of cilia on the anterior end.

---

rotifer British  

/ ˈrəʊtɪfə /

noun

1. Also called: wheel animalcule. any minute aquatic multicellular invertebrate of the phylum Rotifera , having a ciliated wheel-like organ used in feeding and locomotion: common constituents of freshwater plankton

---

rotifer Scientific  

/ rō′tə-fər /

1. Any of various tiny, multicellular aquatic animals of the phylum Rotifera, having a wheel-like ring of cilia at their front ends. The cilia trap small organisms for food. Rotifers are grouped by some scientists together with nematodes and some other invertebrates as aschelminths.

---

Other Word Forms

• rotiferal
  adjective
• rotiferous
  adjective

---

Etymology

Origin of rotifer

From New Latin, dating back to 1785–95; see origin at Rotifera

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

rotifer

Work in Gribble's lab by postdoctoral scientist Alyssa Liguori, who is now an assistant professor at SUNY-New Paltz, examined two different genotypes from the same rotifer species.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026

But even that near-suspension of animation would have nothing on a rotifer: one of these microscopic animals, pulled out of Siberian permafrost, spent the past 25,000 years in a frozen nap before being reanimated.

From Scientific American ● Dec. 27, 2021

Three researchers at Harvard and Woods Hole sequenced portions of the genome of a certain rotifer and found all sorts of craziness that shouldn’t have been there.

From New York Times ● Aug. 13, 2018

The winning rotifer is found in few places in the world, some of them in Moreno’s favorite lake in Panama, Lake Miraflores near Gamboa along the Panama Canal.

From Slate ● Oct. 31, 2014

One dries up a rotifer: good night to him; somebody soaks him a little, and he wakes up to bid you good day.

From The Man With The Broken Ear by Henry Holt

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---