cephalopoda

2 definitions found

cephalopoda - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Cephalopoda \Ceph`a*lop"o*da\ (s[e^]f`[.a]*l[o^]p"[-o]*d[.a]),
     n. pl. [NL., gr. Gr. kefalh` head + -poda: cf. F.
     c['e]phalopode.] (Zool.)
     The highest class of Mollusca.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: They have, around the front of the head, a group of
           elongated muscular arms, which are usually furnished
           with prehensile suckers or hooks. The head is highly
           developed, with large, well organized eyes and ears,
           and usually with a cartilaginous brain case. The higher
           forms, as the cuttlefishes, squids, and octopi, swim
           rapidly by ejecting a jet of water from the tubular
           siphon beneath the head. They have a pair of powerful
           horny jaws shaped like a parrot's beak, and a bag of
           inklike fluid which they can eject from the siphon,
           thus clouding the water in order to escape from their
           enemies. They are divided into two orders, the
           Dibranchiata, having two gills and eight or ten
           sucker-bearing arms, and the Tetrabranchiata, with
           four gills and numerous arms without suckers. The
           latter are all extinct except the Nautilus. See
           Octopus, Squid, Nautilus.
           [1913 Webster] Cephalopodic

cephalopoda - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  Cephalopoda
      n 1: octopuses; squids; cuttlefish; pearly nautilus [syn:
           Cephalopoda, class Cephalopoda]