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mollusc

UK/ˈmɒləsk/US/ˈmɑləsk/
nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,091 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: molluscs

A mollusc is a soft-bodied animal, usually inside a shell. A marine mollusc, molluscs and crustaceans, shell of a mollusc.

Snails, mussels, squid and the octopus are all in the group, which is one of the largest in the animal kingdom and includes some of the cleverest invertebrates there are. Americans spell it mollusk. The Latin behind it means thin-shelled.

PaleoNeolitic · CC BY 4.0

Definitions of mollusc

  1. 1nounmolluscA soft-bodied animal, usually inside a shell.B2+

    “The rock was covered with small molluscs clinging tightly in their shells.”

mollusc is an animal group.

Also accepted in games: mollusk

Where it comes from

New Latin Mollusca comes from Latin molluscus, thin-shelled, from mollis, soft.

  1. Latin

    molluscus — thin-shelled

  2. New Latin

    Mollusca

  3. French

    mollusque

  4. English, today

    mollusc

Built from

  • mollis · Latin — soft

French mollusque, from New Latin Mollusca (phylum name), from Latin molluscus (“thin-shelled”), from mollis (“soft”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Insects & Sea Life

Practise this word

mollusc in the wild

  • Clam is a common name for several species of bivalve mollusc.

    Clam

  • The siphon is part of the mantle of the mollusc, and the water flow is directed to (or from) the mantle cavity.

    Siphon (mollusc)

  • A spire is a part of the coiled shell of molluscs.

    Spire (mollusc)

  • Sea snails are slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone.

    Sea snail

  • Members of two classes of molluscs, the Bivalvia (clams) and the Polyplacophora (chitons), have valves.

    Valve (mollusc)

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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.

Related words

the mollis family

mullmollusc

mollusc — used about once every 18,318 pages · #13,091 · point at the bar for the others