octopus
UK/ˈɒktəpʊs//ˈɑktəpʊs/
octopus noun: 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.
Noun
octopus (countable and uncountable, plural octopuses or (nonstandard) octopusses or (hypercorrect) octopi or (rare, hypercorrect) octopii or (rare) octopodes or (rare, nonstandard) octopus)
- 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
- In terms of diversity, cephalopods include the egg case making argonauts, shelled nautiluses, venomous blue-ringed octopuses and enigmatic giants like the giant and colossal squid. […] Fossilised ink sacs are more conclusively known from the extinct “soft-bodied” Coleoidea cephalopods in groups...2017 August 9, Mark Carnall, “Why do cephalopods produce ink? And what's ink made of, anyway?”, in The Guardian
- A mollusc from genus Octopus.
- The flesh of these marine molluscs eaten as food.
- An organization that has many powerful branches controlled from the centre.
- An instance of a player scoring a touchdown immediately followed by a successful two-point conversion, resulting in a total score of eight points.
- A safety device allowing divers to share an air supply in an emergency.
Verb
octopus (third-person singular simple present octopusses or octopuses, present participle octopussing or octopusing, simple past and past participle octopussed or octopused)
- To put (or attempt to put) one's fingers, hands or arms in many things or places at roughly the same time.
- He rises up on his wasted legs, the healer's hands octopussed on his head.1994, Susan Ketchin, The Christ-haunted Landscape
- A skinny, sauced-looking gent in shorts and baseball cap wandered in through the door, his arms octopussing no less than three pre-teen girls.2006, Stuart Lloyd, Gone Troppo: Hot Babes, Warm Weather, Cold Beer. Paradise!
- To spread out in long arms or legs in many directions.
- The bug-eyed press octopussed to their respective word processors.1995, Donald A. Weatherby, The Star-Spangled Specter, page 105
- Dirt roads octopussed into the interior, where there were more dried mud and shrivelled crops.1997, The Unesco Courier - Volume 50, Issues 1-6, page 33
- To plug a large number of devices into a single electric outlet.
- If they're all for a single indoor tree, caution against "octopusing" of cords from other cords, and the use of a number of cords in a single receptacle.1963, Hardware Age - Volume 203, Issues 7-10, page 88
- By now, the reservation had electricity so THAT had to be octopussed out to the trailers too.1985, Ted C. Williams, The Reservation, page 206
- To grow in use vastly beyond what was originally intended.
- The interlocking business organizations have octopussed beyond all imagining in recent years; they are intermingled with citizens' union-smashing committees and women's strikebreaking “patriotic” groups, such as Neutral Thousands and Women of the Pacific.1937, Fight Against War and Fascism - Volumes 5-6, page 34
- The busy man will do two things at once in his office; and with a little forethought he can practise what psychologist Freeman calls "brain octopussing" at home, too.1953, Dun's Review and Modern Industry, volume 62, August-December 1953, page 256
- To hunt and catch octopuses.
- The sport could be called octopusing or octopus hunting— and any number may play. Supposing you catch an octopus, what do you have?1956, Travel - Volume 105, page 46
- CRABBING AND OCTOPUSSING: Use the same method whether you skindive for crabs and octopi or gather them intertidally.1977, Peter Howorth, Foraging Along the California Coast, Capra Press, →ISBN, page 97
- To behave like an octopus.
- Night fell especially dark and cold for August, inky blackness tendrilling in, octopussing even the street lamps, now dim with vague form.1995, Donald A. Weatherby, The Star-Spangled Specter, page 77
- “Strangled in the middle of the night by one of Molly's eight legs.”
“Mo-om!” Molly kicked Robin in the shins.
“Owww!” Robin lunged against the door. “I've been octopused!”2009, Becky Citra, Whiteout, page 20
octopus meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
octopus in Hindi
- mollusc
- ऑक्टोपस ŏkṭopas, अष्टबाहु aṣṭabāhu
octopus in Tamil
- mollusc
- சாக்குக்கணவாய் cākkukkaṇavāy
octopus in Urdu
- mollusc
- آکٹوپس ākṭopas, ہَشْت پا haśt-pā
octopus in Bengali
- mollusc
- অক্টোপাস okṭōpaś
More languagesFewer languages
- octopus in Telugu
- ఆక్టోపస్ ākṭōpas
- octopus in Malayalam
- നീരാളി nīrāḷi
- octopus in Kannada
- ಆಕ್ಟೊಪಸ್ಸು ākṭopassu
- octopus in Punjabi
- ਤੰਦੂਆ tandūā
- octopus in Gujarati
- ઓક્ટોપસ okṭopas
- octopus in Odia
- ଅକ୍ଟୋପସ akṭopasa, ଅଷ୍ଟବାହୁ aṣṭabāhu, କୁମୁଟିମୁଣା kumuṭimuṇā
- octopus in Sinhala
- බූවල්ලා būwallā
- octopus in Nepali
- अक्टोपस akṭopas
- octopus in Tagalog
- pugita, salabay
- octopus in Arabic
- أُخْطُبُوط ʔuḵṭubūṭ, أَخْطَبُوط ʔaḵṭabūṭ, قَرْنِيط qarnīṭ
- octopus in Malay
- gurita, kurita, sotong gurita, doyak
- octopus in Indonesian
- gurita
- octopus in Persian
- هشتپا hašt-pâ, اختاپوس oxtâpus
- octopus in Thai
- หมึกยักษ์ mʉ̀k-yák
- octopus in Vietnamese
- bạch tuộc
- octopus in Myanmar
- ဘဝဲ bha.wai:
- Dzongkha
- ཚིཝ་ར་རྡུགས tshiw ra rdugs
Examples of octopus in a sentence
- In one photograph, a teenaged Leah crouches by a tall cylindrical tank containing what she identified to me as a giant Pacific octopus named Pamela.2022, Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea, Picador, page 67:
- I took off my shirt, standing in swim trunks, embarrassed of my tour body, my hands octopussing around the ashamed drink tickets of my gut.2018, Derrick C. Brown, Hello. It Doesn't Matter.:
- He had attached three more on so now there were seven legs octopussing out from underneath the chair.2002, Susan Goyette, Lures: A Novel, page 224:
- The three electrical outlets I could see—though located six feet above the ground, beyond all their little reaches—were octopussed with what looked like more plugs than the circuits could handle.2010, Arthur Nersesian, Mesopotamia, page 53:
Synonyms of octopus
Forms of octopus
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | octopuses |
| plural hypercorrect | octopi |
| plural (nonstandard) | octopusses |
| plural hypercorrect (rare) | octopii |
| plural (rare) | octopodes |
| plural (nonstandard, rare) | octopus |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | octopusses |
| third-person singular present | octopuses |
| present participle | octopussing |
| present participle | octopusing |
| past participle | octopussed |
| past | octopussed |
| past participle | octopused |
| past | octopused |
Origin of octopus
Borrowed from Latin octōpūs, from Ancient Greek ὀκτώπους (oktṓpous), from ὀκτώ (oktṓ, “eight”) + πούς (poús, “foot”). Piecewise doublet of octopod and octopede.
Words formed from octopus
- blanket octopus
- blue-ringed octopus
- coconut octopus
- common octopus
- curled octopus
- dumbo octopus
- giant octopus
- giant Pacific octopus
- glass octopus
- gloomy octopus
- Kochtopus
- larger Pacific striped octopus
- mimic octopus
- occy
- octopamine
- octopean
- octopian
- octopic
- octopine
- octopod
- octopoid
- octopoidal
- Octopolis
- octopusal
- octopus bush
- octopus cable
- octopusesque
- octopush
- octopus hold
- octopusial
- octopusical
- octopusine
- octopus ink
- octopusish
- octopuslike
- octopus stinkhorn
- octopus strap
- octopus stretch
- octopussy
- octopusy
- seven-arm octopus
- sharktopus
- Turquet's octopus
- umbrella octopus
Phrases with octopus
Questions about octopus
- What does octopus mean?
- Octopus means 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.
- What is octopus in Hindi?
- Octopus in Hindi is ऑक्टोपस (ŏkṭopas), अष्टबाहु (aṣṭabāhu). See Octopus meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use octopus in a sentence?
- In one photograph, a teenaged Leah crouches by a tall cylindrical tank containing what she identified to me as a giant Pacific octopus named Pamela.
- What part of speech is octopus?
- Octopus can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce octopus?
- Octopus is pronounced /ˈɒktəpʊs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of octopus?
- The plural of octopus is octopuses.
Words near octopus in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: octopus (page history and authors); ઓક્ટોપસ (Gujarati) (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: en-us-octopus.ogg.
Cite this entry: “octopus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/octopus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.