invertebrate

Adjective
  1. Lacking a backbone or spinal column (synset 302520331)
    "worms are an example of invertebrate animals"
    referred to in: zoological science, zoology - the branch of biology that studies animals
    same as: spineless
Noun
  1. Any animal lacking a backbone or notochord;
    The term is not used as a scientific classification (synset 101908302)
    associated with: exoskeleton - the exterior protective or supporting structure or shell of many animals (especially invertebrates) including bony or horny parts such as nails or scales or hoofs
    is a type of: animal, animate being, beast, brute, creature, fauna - a living organism characterized by voluntary movement
    subtypes:
    • arthropod - invertebrate having jointed limbs and a segmented body with an exoskeleton made of chitin
    • zoophyte - any of various invertebrate animals resembling a plant such as a sea anemone or coral or sponge
    • parazoan, poriferan, sponge - primitive multicellular marine animal whose porous body is supported by a fibrous skeletal framework; usually occurs in sessile colonies
    • cnidarian, coelenterate - radially symmetrical animals having saclike bodies with only one opening and tentacles with stinging structures; they occur in polyp and medusa forms
    • comb jelly, ctenophore - biradially symmetrical hermaphroditic solitary marine animals resembling jellyfishes having for locomotion eight rows of cilia arranged like teeth in a comb
    • worm - any of numerous relatively small elongated soft-bodied animals especially of the phyla Annelida and Chaetognatha and Nematoda and Nemertea and Platyhelminthes; also many insect larvae
    • borer, woodborer - any of various insects or larvae or mollusks that bore into wood
    • rotifer - minute aquatic multicellular organisms having a ciliated wheel-like organ for feeding and locomotion; constituents of freshwater plankton
    • mollusc, mollusk, shellfish - invertebrate having a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a shell
    • phoronid - hermaphrodite wormlike animal living in mud of the sea bottom
    • bryozoan, moss animal, polyzoan, sea mat, sea moss - sessile aquatic animal forming mossy colonies of small polyps each having a curved or circular ridge bearing tentacles; attach to stones or seaweed and reproduce by budding
    • ectoproct - sessile mossy aquatic animal having the anus of the polyp outside the crown of tentacles
    • entoproct - any of various moss-like aquatic animals usually forming branching colonies; each polyp having a both mouth and anus within a closed ring of tentacles
    • symbion pandora - only known species of Cycliophora; lives symbiotically attached to a lobster's lip by an adhesive disk and feeding by means of a hairy mouth ring; its complex life cycle includes asexual and sexual phases
    • brachiopod, lamp shell, lampshell - marine animal with bivalve shell having a pair of arms bearing tentacles for capturing food; found worldwide
    • peanut worm, sipunculid - small unsegmented marine worm that when disturbed retracts its anterior portion into the body giving the appearance of a peanut
    • echinoderm - marine invertebrates with tube feet and five-part radially symmetrical bodies
    has:
    • foot, invertebrate foot - any of various organs of locomotion or attachment in invertebrates
    • peristome - region around the mouth in various invertebrates

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