Word.ws English Dictionary

belemnite

/ˈbɛləmˌnaɪt/

belemnite noun: any member of the extinct order †Belemnitida of Mesozoic marine cephalopods, very similar in many ways to the modern squid and closely related to the modern cuttlefish.

belemnite: any member of the extinct order †Belemnitida of Mesozoic marine cephalopods, very similar in many...
Image: Ghedoghedo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

belemnite (plural belemnites)

  1. Any member of the extinct order †Belemnitida of Mesozoic marine cephalopods, very similar in many ways to the modern squid and closely related to the modern cuttlefish.
    • In the universal decay this volatile substance had chanced to survive, perhaps through many thousands of centuries. It reminded me of a sepia painting I had once seen done from the ink of a fossil Belemnite that must have perished and become fossilized millions of years ago.1895, H. G. Wells, chapter VIII, in The Time Machine
    • The guts of fossilized marine reptiles are packed with belemnites, and it's been theorized that some prehistoric sharks even died from the overconsumption of heavy belemnite shell guards.2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 101

Synonyms of belemnite

All synonyms of belemnite

Forms of belemnite

pluralbelemnites

Origin of belemnite

From Ancient Greek βέλεμνον (bélemnon, “dart, arrow”) + English -ite.

Words formed from belemnite

Phrases with belemnite

Questions about belemnite

What does belemnite mean?
Belemnite means any member of the extinct order †Belemnitida of Mesozoic marine cephalopods, very similar in many ways to the modern squid and closely related to the modern cuttlefish.
What part of speech is belemnite?
Belemnite is a noun.
How do you pronounce belemnite?
Belemnite is pronounced /ˈbɛləmˌnaɪt/.
What is the plural of belemnite?
The plural of belemnite is belemnites.

Words near belemnite in the dictionary

  1. beleived
  2. beleiver
  3. beleives
  4. beleiving
  5. Belem
  6. belemnite
  7. belemnite battlefield
  8. belemnite battlefields
  9. belemnitellid
  10. belemnitellids
  11. belemnites

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: belemnite (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “belemnite.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/belemnite. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.