Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A mollusk, such as an oyster or a clam, that has a shell consisting of two hinged valves.
- adj. Having a shell consisting of two hinged valves.
- adj. Consisting of two similar separable parts.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having two leaves or folding parts: as, a bivalve speculum.
- In zoology, having two shells united by a hinge.
- In botany, having two valves, as a seed-case.
- n. plural Folding doors.
- 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. Seelamellibranch . - n. In botany, a pericarp in which the seed-case opens or splits into two parts.
Wiktionary
- 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
- 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. - n. (Bot.) A pericarp in which the seed case opens or splits into two parts or valves.
- adj. (Zoöl. & Bot.) Having two shells or valves which open and shut, as the oyster and certain seed vessels.
WordNet 3.0
- n. marine or freshwater mollusks having a soft body with platelike gills enclosed within two shells hinged together
- adj. used of mollusks having two shells (as clams etc.)
Etymologies
- bi- (“two”) + valve (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Vibrio species, including human pathogens, are particularly abundant in bivalve tissues, where they can persist even after cleaning procedures, thus representing a potential risk for human health.”
“The oyster is described as a bivalve shell-fish, having the valves generally unequal.”
“The baby bivalve, which is part of the Limidae family, was swimming like a scallop by clapping its shells together when the photo was taken.”
“A sailor in search of _marteaux_, a very rare kind of bivalve mussel, was stung by a serpent.”
Celebrated Travels and Travellers Part 2. The Great Navigators of the Eighteenth Century
“The street-doors of the ancients were generally "bivalve," or "folding-doors."] [Footnote 7: Every spot of sorrow) -- Ver.”
“That simply affirms in my view that the people outraged over this have the intelligence of a bivalve.”
“For example, these bivalve shells, probably arks (Arcidae), each had a hole thru its umbo.”
“The other bivalve species I noticed, which was much less abundant than Corbicula, was the following native unionid.”
“While we don't want to take a side in the East Coast/West Coast bivalve smackdown, here's a short list of restaurants where you can enjoy the mollusk with the mythological aphrodisiac powers.”
The Huffington Post: Find. Eat. Drink.: Chefs' Favorite Oyster Restaurants
“A heart-shaped bivalve or a garden flower. colporteur”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bivalve’.
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molluscs
very comprehensive list
of molluscs,who does not like
calamari? hmm yum
molluscigerous
100,000 species just in molluscsabalone, ammonite, argonaut, ataata, belon, bivalve, blackhead, bluepoint, brachiopod, buckie, byssal, byssus and 271 more...
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Home Sweet Home
Actual Towns and Cities with Poetic Names.
If you know where the town is located please put that in the comments. All of mine came out of a zip code directory.phlox, blue mountain, battles wharf, robinwood, blue spring, coffee springs, cottage hill, hazel green, highland home, sunflower, three notch, circle and 94 more...
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funny place names in the garden state
I lived in New Jersey for a couple of years. Aside from being a strange place in general, the state is filled with strangely named places. Recently transplanted to California, where I've yet to com...
cheesequake, mahwah, nutley, watchung, rancocas, succasunna, weehawken, hopatcong, netcong, loveladies, bivalve, Hopatcong
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bi-
two; twice; every two; lasting two
biathlon, biannual, bicentennial, biennial, bisexual, binoculars, bigamy, biscotti, bilabial, bicep, bicuspid, bicycle and 19 more...
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Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
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Place Names Of Distinction
These are all names of real places. The focus is on towns, mountains, rivers etc. but I will consider streets. Streets are even wackier so if there's enough good'uns ... yep, another list :-)
malino, yoshkar-ola, cae onan, krakatoa, gulfoss, perusia, camooweal, manangatang, utopia, bastardo, condom, zumstein and 324 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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InstantWordPower
sesquipedalian, optometrist, quadruped, biped, bimonthly, bifocal, bicuspid, bivalve, quadraphonic, quadruplet, quadruple, quadrilateral and 107 more...
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Critters
cockle, cicada, appaloosa, brachiopod, bivalve, aye-aye, cygnet, alewife, chamois, ermine, drake, dugong and 381 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for bivalve.

mollusque A town in New Jersey. Feb 26, 2008