Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various small, chiefly freshwater flatworms of the order Tricladida, having a soft, broad, ciliated body, a three-branched digestive cavity, and the ability to regenerate body parts.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Flat, as a turbellarian; belonging to the Planarida or Dendrocœla. See cut under Dendrocœla.
  • noun A member of the suborder Planarida.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the Planarida, or Dendrocœla; any turbellarian worm.

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

  • noun Any of various freshwater flatworms, of the family Planariidae, especially of the genus Planaria.

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

  • noun free-swimming mostly freshwater flatworms; popular in laboratory studies for the ability to regenerate lost parts

Etymologies

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

[From New Latin Plānāria, genus name, from feminine of Late Latin plānārius, on level ground, from plānus, flat; see pelə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From New Latin planaria (from Late Latin planarius ("lying on a plane"), from Latin planum) +‎ -an

Support

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

Examples

  • I wrote about the land planarian Bipalium adventitium in this post.

    Bipalium adventitium AYDIN 2009

  • The planarian hasn't eaten for at least about 50 hours.

    Bipalium adventitium AYDIN 2009

  • I wrote about the land planarian Bipalium adventitium in this post.

    Archive 2009-09-01 AYDIN 2009

  • Here is a picture I took in the field; the planarian was still on the underside of the log.

    Bipalium adventitium AYDIN 2009

  • I have selected an unfortunate earthworm from the backyard and will be giving it to the planarian soon.

    Archive 2009-09-01 AYDIN 2009

  • Here is a picture I took in the field; the planarian was still on the underside of the log.

    Archive 2009-09-01 AYDIN 2009

  • As usual, I was looking for slugs and snails and there was this planarian crawling around the roots of a tree.

    Archive 2009-06-01 AYDIN 2009

  • And now for something completely different: the land planarian Bipalium adventitium.

    Archive 2009-06-01 AYDIN 2009

  • I have selected an unfortunate earthworm from the backyard and will be giving it to the planarian soon.

    Bipalium adventitium AYDIN 2009

  • The planarian hasn't eaten for at least about 50 hours.

    Archive 2009-09-01 AYDIN 2009

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