jellyfish
/ˈd͡ʒɛliˌfɪʃ/ noun
Forms jellyfishes
- noun An almost transparent aquatic animal; any one of the acalephs, especially one of the larger species, having a jellylike appearance.
- noun Any of various species of cnidarians in the subphylum Medusozoa, including box jellyfish (class Cubozoa), true jellyfish (class Scyphozoa), stalked jellyfish (class Staurozoa), and certain hydrozoans.
- noun (especially) The medusa phase of these animals rather than a younger life stage.
- noun A ctenophore, a member of the phylum Ctenophora (comb jellies).
- noun A sudoku technique involving possible cell locations for a digit, or pair, or triple, in uniquely four rows and four columns only. This allows for the elimination of candidates around the grid.
Synonyms
Etymology
From jelly + fish. From being an aquatic creature (i.e. fish) that is gelatinous (“jelly”). Despite the name, jellyfish are not biologically classified as fish.
The term appeared in the mid-19th century and displaced various older terms such as sea jelly (now much less common), blubber/sea blubber, nettle/sea nettle (both now referring to specific jellyfish species), and, in scientific literature, medusa.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “jellyfish”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details