Word.ws English Dictionary

octopi

UK/ˈɒktəpaɪ/US/ˈɑktəpaɪ/

octopi is the plural of octopus.

Meaning of octopus

Noun

octopus (countable and uncountable, plural octopuses or (nonstandard) octopusses or (hypercorrect) octopi or (rare, hypercorrect) octopii or (rare) octopodes or (rare, nonstandard) octopus)

  1. (broadly, countable) Any of several marine molluscs of the order Octopoda, having no internal or external protective shell or bone (unlike the nautilus, squid and cuttlefish) and eight arms each covered with suckers.
    • Even octopuses without stylets almost certainly retain the molecular machinery necessary to build them.2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 120
  2. (countable, strictly) A mollusc from genus Octopus.
  3. (uncountable) The flesh of these marine molluscs eaten as food.
  4. (countable) An organization that has many powerful branches controlled from the centre.
  5. (informal) An instance of a player scoring a touchdown immediately followed by a successful two-point conversion, resulting in a total score of eight points.
  6. (countable) A safety device allowing divers to share an air supply in an emergency.

See all 12 meanings of octopus

Synonyms of octopi

Origin of octopi

Formed on a common assumption that the -us of Latin octopus was a second-declension case ending.

Phrases with octopi

Words that rhyme with octopi

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about octopi

What is octopi the plural of?
Octopi is the plural of octopus.
How do you pronounce octopi?
Octopi is pronounced /ˈɒktəpaɪ/ (UK).

Words near octopi in the dictionary

  1. octopeptide
  2. octopetalous
  3. octophobia
  4. octophone
  5. octophones
  6. octopi
  7. octopian
  8. octopic
  9. octopii
  10. octopine
  11. octopines

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: octopi (page history and authors); octopus (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: “octopi.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/octopi. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.