COELENTERATE

 Dictionary entry overview: What does coelenterate mean? 

• COELENTERATE (noun)
  The noun COELENTERATE has 1 sense:

1. radially symmetrical animals having saclike bodies with only one opening and tentacles with stinging structures; they occur in polyp and medusa forms

  Familiarity information: COELENTERATE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COELENTERATE (noun)

Meaning:

Radially symmetrical animals having saclike bodies with only one opening and tentacles with stinging structures; they occur in polyp and medusa forms

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

cnidarian; coelenterate

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

invertebrate (any animal lacking a backbone or notochord; the term is not used as a scientific classification)

Meronyms (parts of "coelenterate"):

coelenteron (the saclike body cavity of a coelenterate)

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

polyp (one of two forms that coelenterates take e.g. a hydra or coral: usually sedentary and has a hollow cylindrical body usually with a ring of tentacles around the mouth)

medusa (one of two forms that coelenterates take: is the free-swimming sexual stage in the life cycle of a coelenterate and has a gelatinous umbrella-shaped body and tentacles)

jellyfish; medusa; medusan (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 ("coelenterate" is a member of...):

Cnidaria; Coelenterata; phylum Cnidaria; phylum Coelenterata (hydras; polyps; jellyfishes; sea anemones; corals)