tube worm
nounDefinition of tube worm
: a worm that lives in a tube (as one composed of sand grains or calcium carbonate) : such as
a
: any of various polychaetes or oligochaetes
b(1)
: pogonophoran
(2)
: vestimentiferan
Examples of tube worm in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Seven-foot-long tube worms, ghostly white snailfish, and massive crustaceans all make their homes in the forbidding depths. — Eva Botkin-kowacki, The Christian Science Monitor, "NASA eyes the ocean: How the deep sea could unlock outer space," 23 Aug. 2019 Dozens have responded to the park service post with guesses, including many who disagree with the tube worm theory. — Mark Price, charlotteobserver, "Mysterious dead thing with ‘boney structures’ found on Outer Banks. Experts stumped," 4 June 2019 But many disagreed with the tube worm hypothesis, leaving their guesses in the post's more than 70 comments. — Fox News, "‘Weird’ worm-like object found on North Carolina shore has experts puzzled," 5 June 2019 Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported explorers found a type of foot-long marine tube worm living on a part of the seafloor off North Carolina where methane gas seeps from the earth. — Mark Price, charlotteobserver, "Mysterious dead thing with ‘boney structures’ found on Outer Banks. Experts stumped," 4 June 2019 These chimney-like structures allow tube worms, clams, mussels, and other organisms to survive not via photosynthesis but chemosynthesis, in which microbes convert chemicals released by the vents into energy. — Paul Chesley, National Geographic, "Our oceans are under attack by climate change, overfishing," 21 Mar. 2019 On the one hand, hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor of Earth can support thriving communities of living organisms, from microbes to tube worms and even crabs. — Jay Bennett, Popular Mechanics, "Saturn's Moon Enceladus Is Spewing Complex Organic Molecules Into Space," 27 June 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'tube worm.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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