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CNIDARIAN
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Radially symmetrical animals having saclike bodies with only one opening and tentacles with stinging structures; they occur in polyp and medusa forms
Synonyms:
cnidarian; coelenterate
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("cnidarian" is a kind of...):
invertebrate (any animal lacking a backbone or notochord; the term is not used as a scientific classification)
Meronyms (parts of "cnidarian"):
coelenteron (the saclike body cavity of a coelenterate)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cnidarian"):
polyp (one of two forms that coelenterates take (e.g. a hydra or coral): usually sedentary with a hollow cylindrical body usually with a ring of tentacles around the mouth)
medusa; medusan; medusoid (one of two forms that coelenterates take: it is the free-swimming sexual phase in the life cycle of a coelenterate; in this phase it has a gelatinous umbrella-shaped body and tentacles)
jellyfish (any of numerous usually marine and free-swimming coelenterates that constitute the sexually reproductive forms of hydrozoans and scyphozoans)
scyphozoan (any of various usually free-swimming marine coelenterates having a gelatinous medusoid stage as the dominant phase of its life cycle)
hydroid; hydrozoan (colonial coelenterates having the polyp phase dominant)
actinozoan; anthozoan (sessile marine coelenterates including solitary and colonial polyps; the medusoid phase is entirely suppressed)
Holonyms ("cnidarian" is a member of...):
Cnidaria; Coelenterata; phylum Cnidaria; phylum Coelenterata (hydras; polyps; jellyfishes; sea anemones; corals)
