Dictionary Home »
Webster's New World College Dictionary » molluskan
molluskan
Variant of mollusk
mollusk
definition
mol·lusk (mäl′əsk)
noun
any of a large phylum (Mollusca) of invertebrate animals, including the chitons, gastropods, cephalopods, scaphopods, and bivalves characterized by a soft, unsegmented body, typically enclosed wholly or in part in a mantle and a calcareous shell, and usually having gills and a foot
Etymology: Fr mollusque < ModL Mollusca, coined by Baron Georges (Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert) Cuvier < L mollusca, a soft-shelled nut < molluscus, soft < mollis: see mollify
Related Forms:
- molluskan mol·lus′·kan (mə lus′kən) adjective, noun
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Comments
Improve this definition.
Browse dictionary definitions near molluskan
Share on Facebook