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  1. Portuguese man-of-war love

Definitions

Wiktionary

  1. n. A floating colony of hydrozoans (Physalia physalis) attached to a float; it superficially resembles a jellyfish.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Zoöl.) any species of the genus Physalia; it is a hydrozoan having both medusa and polyp stages present in a single colony. It floats on the surface of the sea by a buoyant bladderlike structure, from which dangle multiple long tentacles with stinging cells. Its can cause severe rashes when it comes in contact with humans swimming in the area. See Physalia.
  2. adj. (Zoöl.) See Physalia.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. large siphonophore having a bladderlike float and stinging tentacles

Examples

  • “In my last letter I think I mentioned to you that I had worked out and sent home to the President of the Linnean Society, through Captain Stanley, an account of Physalia, or Portuguese man-of-war as it is called, an animal whose structure and affinities had never been worked out.”

    The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley

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hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. siphonophore

reverse dictionary (12)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. man-of-war
  2. lasso cell
  1. nomeus
  2. pastor
  1. sea-bladder
  2. sting-bladder
  1. pneumatophore
  2. siphonophore
  1. physalia
  2. genus physalia
  1. nautilus
  2. somatocyst

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‘Portuguese man-of-war’ has been looked up 411 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.