Word.ws English Dictionary

arthrostracous

arthrostracous adjective: pertaining to the Arthrostraca, an obsolete grouping of crustaceans with segmented thoraxes and abdomens, bearing seven pairs of thoracic legs; included in this group are the isopods and amphipods.

Adjective

arthrostracous (not comparable)

  1. (rare) Pertaining to the Arthrostraca, an obsolete grouping of crustaceans with segmented thoraxes and abdomens, bearing seven pairs of thoracic legs; included in this group are the isopods and amphipods.
    • The Cumacea resemble the arthrostracous Crustacea in having eyes without a movable stalk; but they closely resemble the Schizopoda in the form of the body, thus corresponding with the lower developmental stages of the decapodous crustaceans.1889, William Dwight Whitney, The century dictionary: An encyclopedic lexicon of the english language, page 1394
    • In the important paper already mentioned, Hansen (J03) gives reason for believing that the labial segment in insects was primitively a trunk-segment, and has become secondarily associated with the head, like the segment that bears the maxillipeds in the arthrostracous Crustacea1853, Quarterly journal of microscopical science., page 375

Origin of arthrostracous

Likely from taxonomic name Arthrostraca + -ous; by surface analysis, arthr-, from Ancient Greek ἄρθρον (árthron, “joint”) + ὄστρακον (óstrakon, “shell”) + -ous

Questions about arthrostracous

What does arthrostracous mean?
Arthrostracous means pertaining to the Arthrostraca, an obsolete grouping of crustaceans with segmented thoraxes and abdomens, bearing seven pairs of thoracic legs; included in this group are the isopods and amphipods.
What part of speech is arthrostracous?
Arthrostracous is an adjective.

Words near arthrostracous in the dictionary

  1. arthrostenosis
  2. arthrosterigma
  3. arthrosterigmata
  4. arthrostomies
  5. arthrostomy
  6. arthrostracous
  7. arthrosynovitis
  8. arthrotic
  9. arthrotome
  10. arthrotomes
  11. arthrotomic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: arthrostracous (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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