Word.ws English Dictionary

malacoderm

malacoderm noun: one of a former tribe of beetles (Malacodermata), with a soft and flexible body.

Noun

malacoderm (plural malacoderms)

  1. (dated) One of a former tribe of beetles (Malacodermata), with a soft and flexible body.
    • The fireflies are malacoderms.
    • In the recently published volumes on the Longicorn and Malacoderm beetles of Central America^([108]) there are numbers of beautifully coloured figures of the new species; and on looking over them we are struck by the curious resemblance of some of the Longicorns to species of the Malacoderm group.1889, Alfred Russel Wallace, Darwinism, page 222

Forms of malacoderm

pluralmalacoderms

Origin of malacoderm

Borrowed from Ancient Greek μαλακός (malakós, “soft”) + -derm.

Questions about malacoderm

What does malacoderm mean?
Malacoderm means one of a former tribe of beetles (Malacodermata), with a soft and flexible body.
What part of speech is malacoderm?
Malacoderm is a noun.
What is the plural of malacoderm?
The plural of malacoderm is malacoderms.

Words near malacoderm in the dictionary

  1. malacissation
  2. malacissations
  3. malaco-
  4. malacocoenoses
  5. malacocoenosis
  6. malacoderm
  7. malacoderms
  8. malacofauna
  9. malacofaunal
  10. malacoid
  11. malacolite

Source and license

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