Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various arthropods of the class Diplopoda, having a cylindrical segmented body with two pairs of legs attached to each segment except for the first four thoracic segments, and feeding chiefly on decaying organic matter.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as milleped.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of many elongated arthropods, of the class Diplopoda, with cylindrical bodies that have two pairs of legs for each one of their 20 to 100 or more body segments.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of numerous herbivorous nonpoisonous arthropods having a cylindrical body of 20 to 100 or more segments most with two pairs of legs

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin mīlipeda, a kind of insect : mīlle, thousand; see gheslo- in Indo-European roots + pēs, ped-, foot; see ped- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin milli- ("thousand") + pedis ("foot")

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Examples

  • Now I want one and have to convince mom why having a 10 inch long, millipede, which is a veggetarian (but will eat carrion) is a good pet.

    dailycomic Diary Entry dailycomic 2008

  • It's called a millipede migration and there could be a number of reasons why the bugs are coming up from the ground and swarming around homes.

    News Channel 9: Local News 2010

  • In one kind of millipede, in the male the last pair of legs has a sound-producing apparatus, consisting of a ridged plate, which, by being rubbed against a set of tiny, bead-like bodies set in the surface of the last shield covering the body, produces a peculiar noise.

    Chatterbox, 1905. Various

  • I like the Shangalulu Pub (I'm told Shangalulu means 'millipede') on the lower level of the building, which has a bar made out of the stern of a boat, and the Tanga Beach Restaurant, which, incidentally, means 'sail' in Swahili and 'string bikini' in German.

    unknown title 2009

  • On the list are an ornate sleeper ray, Electrolux; a 75-million-year-old giant duck-billed dinosaur; a shocking pink millipede (see image); a rare, off-the-shelf frog; one of the most venomous snakes in the world; a fruit bat; a mushroom; a jellyfish named after its victim; a life-imitates-art "Dim" rhinoceros beetle; and the "Michelin Man" plant.

    Science Maxine 2009

  • The list of ten species, with illustrations (none of which is as pink as the millipede), can be seen here.

    Science Maxine 2009

  • Last night at close to 1: 30 AM I took a pause in walking up some stairs to get to my room in order to rescue a tiny little millipede and return him to his home outside.

    I Mean You. karenhealey 2010

  • When Roger was small, his two favorite toys were a tiny, squat doll named Care and a rubber millipede.

    care & danger Shelagh Power-Chopra 2011

  • A monarch, a sheep moth, a millipede defend a world I can never enter though

    A Bestiary of Sorts, in Miniature Sam Rasnake 2011

  • As I watched, the six individuals skiing in single file ahead of me became a single indistinguishable mass with numerous flailing limbs, like an oversized millipede.

    My travels: Felicity Aston, left behind in Antarctica 2011

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