cephalopod
noun
ceph·a·lo·pod
| \ ˈse-fə-lə-ˌpäd
\
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Definition of cephalopod
: any of a class (Cephalopoda) of marine mollusks including the squids, cuttlefishes, and octopuses that move by expelling water from a tubular siphon under the head and that have a group of muscular usually sucker-bearing arms around the front of the head, highly developed eyes, and usually a sac containing ink which is ejected for defense or concealment
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Examples of cephalopod in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Starting in 1975, much of the world’s cephalopod research came out of the National Resource Center for Cephalopods, in Galveston, Texas. — Tik Root, Time, "Inside the Race to Build the World's First Commercial Octopus Farm," 21 Aug. 2019 Cod ended up devouring more lobsters and other large invertebrates, which are low in mercury, while the dogfish went for more squid and other cephalopods, which tend to be high in mercury. — Linda Carroll, NBC News, "Climate change and overfishing could lead to higher mercury levels in fish," 7 Aug. 2019 Squids, octopuses, and other cephalopods are on a very different part of the tree of life from vertebrates. — Eva Frederick, Science | AAAS, "Top stories: How pig fat built Stonehenge, inherited trauma, and an international Ebola emergency," 19 July 2019 How is that going to get into a marine environment to entomb a living, moving cephalopod? — Michael Greshko, National Geographic, "This ancient sea creature fossilized in tree resin. How'd that happen?," 13 May 2019 However, there have been a few instances in which a giant cephalopod has wrestled with divers, including one incident in 2014 off the California coast. — Fox News, "Terrifying video shows diver fighting off giant octopus," 18 June 2019 Octopus and cephalopods, in general, are thought to be highly intelligent. — Fox News, "Key to understanding aliens might be unlocked by octopus' tentacles," 2 July 2019 In the case of the cephalopod, that action changes how light is reflected off its skin. — Washington Post, "How can an octopus help us stay warm?," 24 June 2019 The first photos of the cephalopod were taken by Japanese scientists in 2004, and the first video eight years later, also near Japan. — Chase Purdy, Quartz, "Scientists spotted a rare giant squid swimming off the coast of Louisiana," 24 June 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cephalopod.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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