Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A cone-shaped, fossilized internal shell of any of an extinct genus of cephalopods related to the cuttlefish.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A straight, solid, tapering, dart-shaped fossil, the internal bone or shell of a molluscous animal of the extinct family Belemnitidæ, common in the Chalk and Jurassic limestone. Belemnites are popularly known as arrow-heads or finger-stones, from their shape; also as
thunderbolts and thunder-stones, from a belief as to their origin. SeeBelemnitidæ . - n. The animal to which such a bone belonged.
- n. Also called ceraunite.
Wiktionary
- n. paleontology An extinct group of Mesozoic marine cephalopod, very similar in many ways to the modern squid and closely related to the modern cuttlefish.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Paleon.) A conical calcareous fossil, tapering to a point at the lower extremity, with a conical cavity at the other end, where it is ordinarily broken; but when perfect it contains a small chambered cone, called the phragmocone, prolonged, on one side, into a delicate concave blade; the thunderstone. It is the internal shell of a cephalopod related to the sepia, and belonging to an extinct family. The belemnites are found in rocks of the Jurassic and Cretaceous ages.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a conical calcareous fossil tapering to a point at one end and with a conical cavity at the other end containing (when unbroken) a small chambered phragmocone from the shell of any of numerous extinct cephalopods of the family Belemnitidae
Etymologies
- New Latin belemnītēs, from Greek belemnon, dart; see gwelə- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I need hardly translate the word belemnite 'for the benefit of the ladies,' as people used to do in the dark and unemancipated eighteenth century; but as our boys have left off learning Greek just as their sisters are beginning to act the 'Antigone' at private theatricals, I may perhaps be pardoned if I explain, 'for the benefit of the gentlemen,' that the word is practically equivalent to javelin-fossil.”
Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science
“Shakespeare's country their connection with thunder is well known, so that in all probability a belemnite is the original of the beautiful lines in 'Cymbeline': --”
Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science
“Stomach contents of a metriorhynchid were described by Dave Martill (1986) and included cephalopod hooklets, a belemnite guard and some long bones that Dave identified as those of the pterosaur Rhamphorhynchus.”
“I'd almost got the loveliest, biggest belemnite, and it broke into three pieces like a slate pencil.”
“They rejoiced with Miss Lever, however, when she secured a fairly intact belemnite.”
“The day of the ammonite and the belemnite also now drew to a close, and only a few of these cephalopods were left to survive the period.”
“Another and very different form of thunderbolt is the belemnite, a common English fossil often preserved in houses in the west country with the same superstitious reverence as the neolithic hatchets.”
Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science
“Yet it will be a thousand years more, in all probability, before the last thunderbolt ceases to be shown as a curiosity here and there to marvelling visitors, and takes its proper place in some village museum as a belemnite, a meteoric stone, or a polished axe-head of our neolithic ancestors.”
Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science
“The very form of the belemnite at once suggests the notion of a dart or lance-head, which has gained for it its scientific name.”
Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science
“Indeed, I have had two thunderbolts shown me at once, one of which was a large belemnite, and the other a modern Indian tomahawk.”
Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘belemnite’.
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 636 more...
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• De rerum natura
What is this list about?
Interesting words in nature and natural science (in any language!).
What kind of words am I supposed to add?
You can add species names that you lov...lagerstätte, parthenogenesis, bushbaby, lepidoptera, dinoflagellate, pupation, chrysalis, ephemeroptera, deinococcus radio..., homoplasy, sciophilous, syncytium and 218 more...
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250 Cherry-Picked Words
Juicy words for the intermediate and advanced speller
consomme, miniaceous, nankeen, smaragdine, stramineous, vitellary, allemande, beguine, bransle, charabanc, margaritaceous, chaconne and 238 more...
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Fake Minerals & Gemstones
dogbite, oliverstone, priceisrite, flapis faloozi, uptite, spondulikite, flashlite, crumpetwithvegemite, samsonite, goodnite, tennisquartz, fallfromagreathite and 101 more...
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Squiddy
Squiddishiousness
squid, squidwarts, squarf, squiddity, squiddiddition, the id of the squid, squisk, squeep, squiddiddiddity, squiddie, squiddishious, squidnunc and 168 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Thunderbolts and Lightning
Very, very frightening.
If you're looking for a list that's just thunderous, see thunder--1.thunderbolt, thunderbolts and ..., lightning, thunderclap headache, thunderclap, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Lightning Strikin..., lightning never s..., lightning rod, lightning conductor, paratonnerre, lightning arrester and 10 more...
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Why I adore this site
A collection of words and phrases that keep me coming back for more.
a priori, why I adore this ..., Chrysotus edwadsi, bletted, casu marzu, darner, melittologist, nabob, omne trinum perfe..., pi-stachio, pinnacle of the b..., pseudomantid and 24 more...
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...another list...
I've no idea where I got this page full of words, but whatever it is, I want to find it again. May have duplicate words from other lists.
bicameral, aphelion, dirigible, parhelion, flocculus, vernier, corticate, oxalis, pandanus, calabash, plumbago, jonquil and 217 more...
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Words of Dinosaurology
This quickly got bigger and weirder than originally intended, so now it's housing terms that relate to the study of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. See also Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, Ichthy...
zygopophyses, ziphodont, plesiomorphic, cleidoic, endothermy, ectothermy, viviparous, vertebrae, cervical, dorsal, sacral, caudal and 628 more...
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Thrown - about tossed - Words
bal-; bol-; -bol; -ble and incau(gh)tious others
ballistic, ballad, symbol, bolide, ballet, problem, ball, parabola, parable, amphibole, boule, diabolical and 184 more...
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Mollusks
"Snaily, clammy, squidy" has evolved into a vehicle for linking to mollusk quotations, so I've started this list for vernacular names of mollusks.
clam, snail, slug, squid, octopus, nautilus, conch, chank, whelk, mussel, oyster, scallop and 221 more...
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The Fantastical Repertoire of Captain...
The popular Belgian cartoon Tintin contains a memorable character in the form of Captain Haddock. He has a remarkable repertory of insults, which render just as well in the English translation. Thi...
ostrogoth, brigand, body-snatcher, steamroller, phylloxera, pyrographer, abecedarian, breathalyser, rhizopod, anthropophagus, odd-toed ungulate, hydrocarbon and 88 more...
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teleologos
words of completeness: words of design relating to purpose
claw, raceme, belemnite, fugue, daedal, convert, etiology, semiotics, sgraffito, intent, outtent, stringcourse and 20 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for belemnite.

fbharjo Once thought to be fallen thunderbolts.
(New Latin belemnītēs, from Greek belemnon, dart; see gwelə- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)) from etymolgy above - also see etymologies for parable, hyperbole, quell, and abulia for further references to gwelə- Apr 18, 2013
hernesheir The Cretaceous PeeDee Belemnite (fossil from the PeeDee formation in South Carolina) provided the original international reference standard for subsequent geochemical analyses and comparisons of delta 13C marine carbonate isotope ratios. Jun 7, 2010
chained_bear Usages on phragmocone and nucleus. Sep 8, 2008