Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various wormlike arthropods of the class Chilopoda, having a flattened body composed of segments, each bearing a pair of jointed appendages. The appendages of the foremost body segment are modified into venomous biting organs with which it preys on insects, such as cockroaches.
Wiktionary
- n. A segmented arthropod of class Chilopoda with a large number of legs, traditionally one hundred (though most species have far fewer.)
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A species of the Myriapoda; esp. the large, flattened, venomous kinds of the order Chilopoda, found in tropical climates. they are many-jointed, and have a great number of feet.
WordNet 3.0
- n. chiefly nocturnal predacious arthropod having a flattened body of 15 to 173 segments each with a pair of legs, the foremost pair being modified as prehensors
Etymologies
- From Latin centi- ("hundred"), + -pede ("feet") (Wiktionary)
- Latin centipeda : centi-, centi- + pēs, ped-, foot; see -ped. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The asymmetrical advantage that enables a "centipede" is that the conspirators themselves are never outed.”
“The bread is out of the oven, so I can take the dog to the park, but I wanted to show you the drain centipede I rescued from the sink this morning.”
“A centipede is blamed for the death of a pregnant woman in Malaysia:”
“The centipede is * clearly* the predator, and as such, has the right to a live kill (a natural right, not some political referendum right).”
“But keep in mind, as it’s been said, the centipede is a pet, and as such it has to be fed.”
“The blame in this tragedy appears misplaced: it is highly unlikely that a centipede was the culprit.”
“He didn't know if the centipede was the fulfillment of Candle's vision or if something worse was looming on the horizon, but he did know that their time in the underground was rapidly drawing to a close.”
“Examples are what is termed the centipede and other insects that are long in shape, for even the hinder portion of all these goes on progressing in the same direction as before when they are cut in two.”
“His eyebrows were of a more than wonted shagginess, growing together at the bridge of his nose, so as to form a thick excrescence of hair that bore an unsettling resemblance to a member of that singularly repellent variety of arthropod commonly known as the centipede.”
“Political sex scandals: the phenomenon of the "centipede”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘centipede’.
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*e?e
Words whose last and third-to-last letters are both "e".
here, eke, were, complete, mete, replete, adhere, where, mere, sphere, austere, aesthete and 99 more...
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pede-, ped-, -pede, -pedal, -pod, -po...
denoting or relating to feet ; of or like a foot
centipede, bipedal, pedometer, millipede, arthropod, quadrupedal, pedicure, pedal, pedopathy, tripod, monopod, pedatifid and 9 more...
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centi-
one hundredth; hundred
centilitre, centiliter, centipede, centenarian, cent, centennial, centurion, centenary, centesimal, centesimation
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I do not like them, Sam I Am
Words that, for various reasons, I wish we could do without.
copacetic, gamut, horehound, lewd, membrane, metrics, mucous, mucus, negligee, nostril, odious, odor and 143 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Flora and Fauna
poa annua, pooka, vole, bestiary, popple, turgor, starling, sharpy, copse, coreopsis, clove, corvid and 348 more...
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Fun with SI prefixes
gigascore, centigross, kilodozen, megafirkin, millimyriad, yoctogoogol, millihelen, decadent, millipicture, microfortnight, decifurlong, deciten and 11 more...
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Legged
Animals with lots of legs.
millipede, pissabed, iniquity, shongololo, myriapod, polypod, centipede, peripatus, onychophoran, chilopod, pselaphognath, scolopendra and 24 more...
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Because I Like Them : C --- D
clawscrunt, comprivigni, dinmont, drizzen, desticate, corf, collop, caboodle, canoodle, curfuffle, cynarctomachy, chionablepsia and 56 more...
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List 6
Derivatives from Chapter 6 of Part One of English Words from Latin and Greek Elements
semiconductor, centipede, viaduct, dualism, quadripartite, sextuplets, interlocutor, convocation, transverse, sacrosanct, accede, tripartite and 9 more...
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Mythical creatures
dragon, griffin, unicorn, chimera, centaur, minotaur, cameleopard, zahhak, azhi dahaka, ouroborus, draco, leviathan and 77 more...
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Bestiarum vocabulum
gecko, leopard, cheetah, gnat, praying mantis, harrier, centipede, mite, meerkat
Tweets
Looking for tweets for centipede.
sionnach
A centipede was happy quite,
Until a frog in fun
Said, "Pray, which leg comes after which?"
This raised her mind to such a pitch,
She lay distracted in the ditch
Considering how to run.
Anon. Feb 9, 2009