Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various small wormlike carnivorous animals of the phylum Onychophora, chiefly of moist forests, having a soft cuticle of chitin and pairs of short claw-bearing legs.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to the Onychophora.
  • noun A member of the Onychophora.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Any of numerous velvety-skinned wormlike carnivorous animals common in tropical forests having characteristics of both arthropods and annelid worms; a member of the Onychophora, also called Malacopoda. See malacopoda.

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

  • noun zoology Any of many wormlike carnivorous animals of the phylum Onychophora

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

  • noun any of numerous velvety-skinned wormlike carnivorous animals common in tropical forests having characteristics of both arthropods and annelid worms

Etymologies

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

[From New Latin Onychophora, phylum name : Greek onux, onukh-, nail, claw; see onyx + Greek -phora, neuter pl. of -phoros, -phore.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word onychophoran.

Examples

  • He doesn't know what you mean by arthropod, let alone onychophoran.

    Pharyngula 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.