tubifex

American

[too-buh-feks, tyoo-] / ˈtu bəˌfɛks, ˈtyu- /

noun

plural

tubifexes,

plural

tubifex

any common, bottom-dwelling worm of the genus Tubifex, often used as food for aquarium fish.

tubifex British

/ ˈtjuːbɪˌfɛks /

noun

any small reddish freshwater oligochaete worm of the genus Tubifex ; it characteristically lives in a tube in sand and is used as food for aquarium fish

"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

Etymology

Origin of tubifex

< New Latin (1816); see tubi-, -fex

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.

In 2002, in a stinky discharge basin behind a shopping mall prone to green algal blooms and crawling with brown rats and tubifex worms, he spotted a familiar green shoot.

From New York Times • Aug. 13, 2019

T. ignotum, with eight spores, from Tubifex tubifex, and also from an unspecified Tubificid; another sp., unnamed, with 32 sporozoites, also from T. t.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 3 "Electrostatics" to "Engis" by Various

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023