vertebrates
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Human beings are vertebrates.
The five traditional class es of vertebrates are amphibians, birds, fishes, mammals, and reptiles. (Compare invertebrates.)
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.
This study was the first to track individual vertebrates continuously, day and night, throughout their entire adult lives.
From Science Daily • Mar. 26, 2026
Tetrapods are vertebrates with limbs, including humans, that eventually made the transition from water to life on land.
From Science Daily • Mar. 12, 2026
A 2023 analysis of roughly 8,000 amphibian species found that two out of five are threatened with extinction, making amphibians the most endangered group of vertebrates.
From Science Daily • Mar. 9, 2026
The findings help explain how vertebrates emerged and diversified from simpler animal ancestors.
From Science Daily • Feb. 4, 2026
To begin with, they are the oldest of all land vertebrates.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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.
