Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of numerous chiefly marine invertebrates of the phylum Mollusca, typically having a soft unsegmented body, a mantle, and a protective calcareous shell and including the edible shellfish and the snails.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A soft-bodied animal, usually with an external shell; a member of the Mollusca in any sense. See Mollusca.
Wiktionary
- n. US alternative spelling of mollusc.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) One of the Mollusca.
WordNet 3.0
- n. invertebrate having a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a shell
Etymologies
- French mollusque, from New Latin Mollusca, phylum name, from neuter pl. of Latin molluscus, thin-shelled, from mollis, soft; see mel-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Perched above the smoggy city, this giant mollusk is home to Magali and Fernando Mayorga and their two sons Allan and Josh.”
The Nautilus – Giant Snail-Shaped Home Fit for a Family | Inhabitat
“Casillas raised a red and yellow carton cutout of Octopus Paul, the mollusk from the German zoo that predicted”
“The mollusk is the venerable grandfather, the chief of the house, the creator of the dynasty, the ancestor crowned with a nobility of millions of centuries.”
“A mollusk is a cheap edition {of man} with a suppression of the costlier illustrations, designed for dingy circulation, for shelving in an oyster-bank or among the seaweed.”
“For example, if I had added the keyword "mollusk" to at least one of my linked posts about barnacles living on snail shells, then the searcher who used the phrase "barnacle mollusk symbiosis" would probably have found them.”
“In addition, they are the number one harvested mollusk, meaning their presence is important economically for the seafood industry.”
“Ammonites were a kind of mollusk, a squidlike creature that lived in a chambered shell.”
“In an 1872 paper, he identified the circular imprints as "small ovate fossils" of some unknown Precambrian organism - perhaps a kind of mollusk - and sketched a picture of the find.”
“In the midst of my mollusk frenzy, I took a moment to post an image to Facebook.”
The Huffington Post: Robert Rosenthal: One Woman's Disgusting Clam Is Another Man's Pleasure To Eat
“Also featured: a mollusk that can open a twist-top jar and dolphins apparently able to read symbols.”
The Washington Post: TV highlights: 'Live to Dance,' 'Human Target' finales
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘mollusk’.
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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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•Open List: Oh, You Beautiful Moll
Being a delightful list of words beginning with moll (hyphenated or otherwise).
Mollusque, we humbly dedicate this list to you.moll-blob, moll-buzzer, mollet-bridle, moll blood, mollsack, moll-shop, moll-tooler, mollusk, molland, mollescent, molleton, molliate and 39 more...
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animals (2 syllable)
A list of common animal names. Keep the list to 2 syllable words.No scientific names. No proper names like 'Fluffy' the elephant.Insects and other creatures (even ficticious like 'dragon') are we...
baboon, rabbit, raptor, dragon, camel, hornet, llama, cobra, cheetah, penguin, puppy, dolphin and 87 more...
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Adorkeble's List of Words
This list is mainly going to just be filled with words, names, phrases, anything! that I come across day to day and find amusing or insert another word here.
This should be interesting. -
miscellany
extrapolate, effluvium, maelstrom, ecclesiastic, potentiate, prestidigitation, verisimilitude, innocuous, octogenarian, interlocutor, proselytize, ubiquitous and 138 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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Dain's Words
rabble, terminus, archaic, atavism, demiurge, waylay, syzygy, jocoserious, quark, entropy, cinnabar, shamble and 912 more...
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the omnibus
preponderance, idioglossia, acumen, heteronym, flux, anacoluthon, metonymy, impetus, constellation, exegesis, revelatory, cloistered and 877 more...
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food
food, chef, spice, salt, sugar, pumpkin, apples, fruit, vegetable, savory, soup, sauce and 280 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Antedatings
Earlier instances of words in English than cited in the Oxford English Dictionary. List the word here and quote the source in a comment.
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botello360's list
ruminate, steel, bifurcation, arrivederci, portage, tactile, ruminant, rift, anecdotage, diacritic, cud, hull and 399 more...
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Words that are fun to say
stipple, carbuncle, dongle, exemplar, misbegotten, gigolo, salubrious, jupiter, propinquity, piglet, tobogganing, supercilious and 309 more...
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Palabrarium
The delicious wonderful words that I love terribly dearly and without which, the world would be a less inventive and worthwhile place. Also, ostensibly, the reason 1984 and esperanto secretly suck.
panoply, footpad, piccalilli, snickersnee, marl, hispid, greengage, slumgullion, golliwog, mumbletypeg, circumlocution, quiescent and 366 more...
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Critters
cockle, cicada, appaloosa, brachiopod, bivalve, aye-aye, cygnet, alewife, chamois, ermine, drake, dugong and 381 more...
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Words I like to say:
thicket, mojave, lorelei, silvery, ringlet, shimmer, autumn, charming, chilly, lipid, patina, adore and 43 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for mollusk.
frogapplause mollusk doorknob. Aug 16, 2012
chained_bear Usage on ecodog. Jul 28, 2009
mollusque . . . the rich and interesting delineations of the zoophytes and mollusks are very new and striking.
--J. Pinkerton, 1811, Petralogy. A Treatise on Rocks vol. I, p. 453.
Antedates OED entry from 1832. Feb 27, 2009
mollusque A mollusk is a cheap edition of man with a suppression of the costlier illustrations, designed for dingy circulation, for shelving in an oyster-bank or among the seaweed.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson, circa 1870, Power and Laws of Thought Nov 8, 2007
jennarenn See clam. Oct 11, 2007