Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various worms or wormlike animals of the phylum Annelida, characterized by an elongated, cylindrical, segmented body and including the earthworms and the leeches.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of the Annelida or Annelides. Also anneloid.
  • Of or pertaining to the Annelida or Annelides. Also annelidan, annelidian.

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

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Of or pertaining to the Annelida.

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

  • noun any of various wormlike animals, of the phylum Annelida, having a segmented body; they include the earthworm and the leech
  • adjective of, or relating to these creatures

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

  • noun worms with cylindrical bodies segmented both internally and externally
  • adjective relating to or belonging to or characteristic of any worms of the phylum Annelida

Etymologies

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

[From New Latin Annelida, phylum name, from French annelés, pl. past participle of anneler, to ring, from Old French anel, ring, from Latin ānellus, diminutive of ānus, ring.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French annélidé, coined by French naturalist Lamarck.

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Examples

  • Thus, in the annelid, which is composed of a great many similar rings, and is regarded as quite a complex creature, there is so little dependence of one part on another, that a number of the rings may be destroyed without any injury to the rest.

    The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 January 1863 Devoted To Literature And National Policy Various

  • His idea, about a week with a worm named Willi, didn't grab his editor, Ms. Beneduce, who thought an annelid was too unsympathetic a protagonist.

    The Very Busy Author-Illustrator Joanne Kaufman 2011

  • Instead, the current best guess is that it is a mass of annelid worms, probably Tubifex.

    Archive 2009-08-01 2009

  • Instead, the current best guess is that it is a mass of annelid worms, probably Tubifex.

    The Lovecraft News Network 2009

  • The striking behaviour, found in the earthworm Eisenia fetida, is the first time that any type of worm, or annelid, has been shown to form active herds.

    Earthworms Form Herds And Make “Group Decisions” | Impact Lab 2010

  • Yet because the reasoning is …. exactly the same as that used to show the evolutionary relationships of mice and bats, whales and hippopotamuses, and, yes, annelid worms and humans. progress can be imagined.

    Assessing Causality 2008

  • It states that vertebrate and annelid CNS are of common descent and vertebrates have turned themselves upside down throughout the course of evolution.

    April 20th, 2007 2007

  • Scientist Kristin Tessmar-Raible from Arendt's lab directly compared two types of hormone-secreting nerve cells of zebrafish, a vertebrate, and the annelid worm Platynereis dumerilii, and found some stunning similarities.

    2007 June - Telic Thoughts 2007

  • A short survey to a depth of 20 m revealed 168 species of finfish, 60 species of cnidaria, including corals, 8 molluscs, 14 sponges, 11 echinoderms, 15 arthropods and 8 annelid worms.

    Pitons Management Area, Saint Lucia 2008

  • It states that vertebrate and annelid CNS are of common descent and vertebrates have turned themselves upside down throughout the course of evolution.

    The Panda's Thumb: April 2007 Archives 2007

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  • "'The bottom of the sea must have been a sad stinking muddy place, to judge from your shoes and stockings.'

    "So it was too... but the annelids, my dear Graham, the annelids! Hundreds, nay thousands of annelids of at least six and thirty several kinds, some plumed and others plain. And wait until I tell you about my holothurians, my sea-slugs, my sea-cucumbers...'"

    —Patrick O'Brian, Treason's Harbour, 74

    February 15, 2008