Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of numerous arthropods of the subphylum Myriapoda, having segmented bodies, one pair of antennae, and at least nine pairs of legs, and including the centipedes and millipedes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having very numerous legs; specifically, pertaining to the Myriapoda, or having their characters.
  • noun A member of the Myriapoda; a centiped or milleped. Also myriapodan.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the Myriapoda.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun zoology Any arthropod (such as centipedes and millipedes) of the subphylum Myriapoda

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun general term for any terrestrial arthropod having an elongated body composed of many similar segments: e.g. centipedes and millipedes

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From New Latin Mȳriapoda, class name : Greek mūrias, ten thousand; see myriad + New Latin -poda, -pod.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word myriapod.

Examples

  • A two-meter-long myriapod was crawling slowly past her feet.

    Asimov's Science Fiction 2003

  • A small myriapod, about ten centimeters long, noticed Big Ugly Mama and decided to eat her.

    Asimov's Science Fiction 2003

  • No myriapod can trace more than a branch or two of the Path, Quath'jutt'kkal'thon.

    Tides Of Light Benford, Gregory, 1941- 1989

  • To the housewife, want is an insidious myriapod creature that crawls in the dark, mates with its own offspring, breeds all the year round, persists like leprosy.

    The Promised Land Mary Antin 1915

  • To the housewife, want is an insidious myriapod creature that crawls in the dark, mates with its own offspring, breeds all the year round, persists like leprosy.

    The Promised Land 1912

  • To the housewife, want is an insidious myriapod creature that crawls in the dark, mates with its own offspring, breeds all the year round, persists like leprosy.

    The Promised Land Antin, Mary, 1881-1949 1912

  • The great bulk of his insect diet consists of beetles, grasshoppers, and caterpillars, with a few bugs, wasps, and flies, and an occasional spider and myriapod.

    Our Bird Comrades 1896

  • In his first article he mistakes a species of the myriapod genus Glomeris for the isopod genus Armadillo.

    Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution His Life and Work 1872

  • Unlike their relatively benign myriapod cousins, the millipedes, they're meat-eaters.

    Slate Magazine Constance Casey 2011

  • Informed sources say the title refers not to the myriapod but to an orgy involving 100 people.

    Slate Magazine Constance Casey 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.