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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A mollusk, such as an oyster or a clam, that has a shell consisting of two hinged valves.
  2. adj. Having a shell consisting of two hinged valves.
  3. adj. Consisting of two similar separable parts.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Having two leaves or folding parts: as, a bivalve speculum.
  2. In zoology, having two shells united by a hinge.
  3. In botany, having two valves, as a seed-case.
  4. n. plural Folding doors.
  5. n. In zoology, a headless lamellibranch mollusk whose shell has two hinged valves, which are opened and shut by appropriate muscles: opposed to univalve. In rare cases, as Pholas, there are also accessory valves besides the two principal ones. See cut under accessory. Familiar examples are the oyster, scallop, mussel, etc. These belong to the asiphonate division of bivalves; the clam, cob, cockle, razor-shell, and many others are siphonate. The piddock belongs to the genus Pholas. The ship-worm, Teredo, is also technically a bivalve. See lamellibranch.
  6. n. In botany, a pericarp in which the seed-case opens or splits into two parts.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Any mollusc belonging to the taxonomic class Bivalvia, characterized by a shell consisting of two hinged sections, such as a scallop, clam, mussel or oyster.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Zoöl.) A mollusk having a shell consisting of two lateral plates or valves joined together by an elastic ligament at the hinge, which is usually strengthened by prominences called teeth. The shell is closed by the contraction of two transverse muscles attached to the inner surface, as in the clam, -- or by one, as in the oyster. See Mollusca.
  2. n. (Bot.) A pericarp in which the seed case opens or splits into two parts or valves.
  3. adj. (Zoöl. & Bot.) Having two shells or valves which open and shut, as the oyster and certain seed vessels.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. marine or freshwater mollusks having a soft body with platelike gills enclosed within two shells hinged together
  2. adj. used of mollusks having two shells (as clams etc.)

Etymologies

  1. bi- (“two”) +‎ valve (Wiktionary)

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  • mollusque A town in New Jersey. Feb 26, 2008

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‘bivalve’ has been looked up 1901 times, added to 9 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 15.