Library / English Dictionary

CRUSTACEAN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any mainly aquatic arthropod usually having a segmented body and chitinous exoskeleton

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("crustacean" is a kind of...):

arthropod (invertebrate having jointed limbs and a segmented body with an exoskeleton made of chitin)

Meronyms (parts of "crustacean"):

green gland (one of a pair of glands (believed to have excretory functions) in some crustaceans near the base of the large antennae)

chela; claw; nipper; pincer (a grasping structure on the limb of a crustacean or other arthropods)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crustacean"):

malacostracan crustacean (a major subclass of crustaceans)

decapod; decapod crustacean (crustaceans characteristically having five pairs of locomotor appendages each joined to a segment of the thorax)

brachyuran (typical crabs)

stomatopod; stomatopod crustacean (a kind of crustacean)

branchiopod; branchiopod crustacean; branchiopodan (aquatic crustaceans typically having a carapace and many pairs of leaflike appendages used for swimming as well as respiration and feeding)

copepod; copepod crustacean (minute marine or freshwater crustaceans usually having six pairs of limbs on the thorax; some abundant in plankton and others parasitic on fish)

mussel shrimp; ostracod; seed shrimp (tiny marine and freshwater crustaceans with a shrimp-like body enclosed in a bivalve shell)

barnacle; cirriped; cirripede (marine crustaceans with feathery food-catching appendages; free-swimming as larvae; as adults form a hard shell and live attached to submerged surfaces)

Holonyms ("crustacean" is a member of...):

class Crustacea; Crustacea (class of mandibulate arthropods including: lobsters; crabs; shrimps; woodlice; barnacles; decapods; water fleas)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or belonging to the class Crustacea

Synonyms:

crustacean; crustaceous

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Pertainym:

Crustacea (class of mandibulate arthropods including: lobsters; crabs; shrimps; woodlice; barnacles; decapods; water fleas)

Credits

 Context examples: 

They are especially abundant in tiny crustaceans such as krill and copepods — favorite prey of filter-feeding bowhead and endangered North Atlantic right whales.

(Whales may owe their efficient digestion to millions of tiny microbes, National Science Foundation)

The technology mixes chitosan —a natural polymer extracted from the shell of crustaceans such as shrimp, lobsters, and crabs— with quaternary ammonium salts, chemical compounds that have antimicrobial properties and are commonly used in controlled concentrations in food industries and as domestic sanitisers.

(Protective bio-shell could extend egg shelf life, SciDev.Net)