invertebrate
/ɪnˈvəːtɪbrət/
invertebrate noun: an animal without vertebrae (i.e., without a backbone).
Noun
invertebrate (plural invertebrates)
- An animal without vertebrae (i.e., without a backbone).
- Yet despite sounding inhospitable, grasslands such as this are home to a huge variety of smaller herbs and wildflowers, including some of the UK's rarest orchids and invertebrates, in addition to being home to butterfly species such as the Chalkhill Blue.2024 March 20, Chris Howe, “High speed underneath the Chilterns...”, in RAIL, number 1005, page 33
- Antonyms:
- vertebrate
- A spineless person; a coward.
- Synonyms:
- gutless wonder, bottler, caitiff, candy-ass, candy-arse, coistril, coward, chicken, chicken liver, chickenshit
Adjective
invertebrate (not comparable)
- Without a backbone: without vertebrae.
- Tear it up, and put a fragment under the microscope, and, wonder of wonders! see the maze of geometric forms exhibited in the bones of the creature; for who can help regarding the spicules as bones, even though a sponge be invertebrate?1860, Recreative Science, page 110
- Synonyms:
- spineless
- Antonyms:
- vertebrate, vertebrated
- Cowardly, uncourageous; lacking character.
- This week Fifa’s morally invertebrate president, Gianni Infantino, gave a speech that attempted to paint his World Cup as a marker of a grand struggle between the bright new world and corrupt old Europe, with Infantino himself the Mandela at its centre.2022 November 21, Barney Ronay, “Iran’s brave and powerful gesture is a small wonder from a World Cup of woe”, in The Guardian
- Synonyms:
- spineless, backboneless, base, soft, bitch-ass, boneless, caitiff, candy-assed, chicken, chicken-hearted
invertebrate meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Kannada
invertebrate in Tamil
- முதுகெலும்பிலி, முதுகெலும்பில்லா உயிரினம், முதுகெலும்பற்றவை, முள்ளந்தண்டில்லாத
invertebrate in Urdu
- بےمہرہ, بےریڑھ
invertebrate in Bengali
- অমেরুদণ্ডী প্রাণী
invertebrate in Kannada
- animal without backbone
- ಅಕಶೇರುಕ akaśēruka
More languagesFewer languages
- invertebrate in Arabic
- لَا فَقَارِيّ lā faqāriyy
- invertebrate in Malay
- haiwan invertebrat, invertebrat, tidak bertulang belakang
- invertebrate in Indonesian
- invertebrata
- invertebrate in Thai
- สัตว์ไม่มีกระดูกสันหลัง sàt-mâi-mii-grà-dùuk-sǎn-lǎng
- invertebrate in Vietnamese
- động vật không xương sống, không xương sống
Examples of invertebrate in a sentence
- The procephalic lobe is that part of the head of an invertebrate animal which is in front of the mouth.
- But he was encouraged by the diversity of simpler eyes among invertebrates.
- My students have worked in communities of freshwater plankton, marine fishes and intertidal algae and invertebrates.
Synonyms of invertebrate
- gutless wonder
- bottler
- candy-ass
- candy-arse
- coward
- chicken
- chicken liver
- chickenshit
- cocktail
- cowardy custard
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of invertebrate
| plural | invertebrates |
|---|
Origin of invertebrate
From in- + vertebrate.
Words formed from invertebrate
Questions about invertebrate
- What does invertebrate mean?
- Invertebrate means an animal without vertebrae (i.e., without a backbone).
- What is invertebrate in Tamil?
- Invertebrate in Tamil is முதுகெலும்பிலி, முதுகெலும்பில்லா உயிரினம், முதுகெலும்பற்றவை. See Invertebrate meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is invertebrate?
- Invertebrate can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce invertebrate?
- Invertebrate is pronounced /ɪnˈvəːtɪbrət/.
- What is the plural of invertebrate?
- The plural of invertebrate is invertebrates.
Words near invertebrate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: invertebrate (page history and authors); invertebrate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); invertebrate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Invertebrate (Bengali Wiktionary) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vininn126-invertebrate.wav.
Cite this entry: “invertebrate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/invertebrate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.