mollusc
pronunciation
How to pronounce mollusc in British English:
UK [ˈmɒləsk]
How to pronounce mollusc in American English:
US [ˈmɑːləsk]
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- Noun:
- invertebrate having a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a shell
Word Origin
- mollusc
- mollusc: [18] Etymologically, a mollusc is a ‘soft’ creature. The word comes ultimately from Latin molluscus ‘soft’, a derivative of mollis ‘soft’. In classical times it was used as a noun for various ‘soft’ things, such as a sort of thinshelled nut and a species of fungus that grew from maple trees, but its application to a range of invertebrate animals seems to have been introduced by the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus in the mid-18th century.Latin mollis (source also of English mollify [15]) goes back ultimately to Indo-European *mel-, *mol-, *ml- ‘grind’, which also produced English meal ‘flour’, mill, and molar.=> meal, melt, mild, mill, molar, mollify
- mollusc (n.)
- see mollusk.
Example
- 1. But this sponge was moving , and it was in fact a maldivian sponge-snail a mollusc that survives by mimicking a sponge .
- 2. The mollusc phylum includes all soft-bodied animals without backbones .
- 3. Advances in studies on nitric oxide and its synthase in mollusc .
- 4. The talented mollusc carried out his predictions by eating a mussel placed in a box decorated with the flag of the team he thought would win .
- 5. The site contains general information about cephalopods , cephalopod links , cephalopod mailing groups and other mollusc links .