adjective
noun
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A gastropod, especially one with a single shell, such as a snail, cone, whelk, abalone, or limpet. Univalves belong to the subclass Prosobranchia. Their shells are usually spiral and can hold the whole animal inside.
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Compare bivalve
Etymology
Origin of univalve
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.
The mother-of-pearl which lines some shells, both univalve and bivalve.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir
A genus of fossil univalve shells, believed to belong to the Heteropoda, peculiar to the Paleozoic age.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah
Although with the Mollusca sexual selection does not seem to have come into play; yet many univalve and bivalve shells, such as volutes, cones, scallops, &c., are beautifully coloured and shaped.
From The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Vol. I by Darwin, Charles
A name applied to the shells of the Haliotis—a univalve mollusc found clinging like limpets to rocks; very abundant in Guernsey.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir
And when the chambered shells, whose occupants were carnivorous, disappeared with the secondary period, numerous univalve mollusks were created to feed on other animals; although previously that family were herbivorous.
From The Religion of Geology and Its Connected Sciences by Hitchcock, Edward
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.
