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invertebrate

UK/ɪnˈvəːtɪbrət/US/ɪnˈvəːtɪbrət/
nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #15,081 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: invertebrates

An invertebrate is an animal with no backbone. Marine invertebrates.

They are about ninety-seven per cent of all animal species, so having a backbone is the unusual case. To call somebody an invertebrate is an insult meaning they have no firmness at all.

File:Jelly cc11.jpg: Paroxysm~commonswiki (uploader), Original by Dan Parsons [1] File:Fromia indica HI09-0187.JPG: FredD, Original by François Michonneau File:Sepioteuthis sepioidea (Caribbean Reef Squid).jpg: Nhobgood File:Drosophila melanogaster Proboscis.jpg: Sanjay Acharya File:Aplysina lacunosa.jpg: Loopy30 (uploader), Original by jbrasher [2] File:Pseudobiceros_hancockanus.jpg: Jnpet File:Sucking leech.jpg: GlebK File:Sea Squirts (Polycarpa aurata) (8470388307).jpg: Josve05a (uploader), Original by Bernard DUPONT [3] File:SEM image of Milnesium tardigradum in active state - journal.pone.0045682.g001-2.png: Daniel Mietchen (uploader), Original by Schokraie E, Warnken U, Hotz-Wagenblatt A, Grohme MA, Hengherr S, et al. (2012) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of invertebrate

  1. 1nouninvertebrateAn animal with no backbone.B2+

    “Nearly every animal in the rock pool was an invertebrate.”

invertebrate is an animal.

Where it comes from

From in- + vertebrate.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Insects & Sea Life

Practise this word

invertebrate in the wild

  • The majority of animal species are invertebrates; one estimate puts the figure at 97%.

    Invertebrate

  • Many invertebrate taxa have a greater number and diversity of species than the entire subphylum of Vertebrata.

    Invertebrate

  • Single-celled organisms or protists are usually not included within the same group as invertebrates.

    Invertebrate zoology

  • GRIN has extended its role to manage information on the germplasm reposits of insect (invertebrate), microbial, and animal species (see sub-projects).

    Germplasm Resources Information Network

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.