ostracod
ostracod noun: any of many small crustaceans, of the class Ostracoda, that resemble a shrimp enclosed in a bivalve shell.
Noun
ostracod (plural ostracods)
- Any of many small crustaceans, of the class Ostracoda, that resemble a shrimp enclosed in a bivalve shell.
- Considering all the ecological data, there seems to be an evolution in the associations of ostracods throughout time.1990, Anne Van Frausum, Karel Wouters, “39: Ostracoda from Holocene calcareous tufa deposits in southern Belgium: a palaeoenvironmental analysis”, in R. Whatley, C. Maybury, editors, Ostracoda and...
- This study has also shown that the fifth limb is most probably of thoracic origin and hence ostracods have only one pair of maxillae.2000, Robin J. Smith, Koen Martens, “The ontology of the cypridid ostracod Eucypris virens (Jurine, 1820) (Crustacea, Ostracoda)”, in David J. Horne, Koen Martens, editors, Evolutionary Biology and...
- Synonyms:
- seed shrimp
Synonyms of ostracod
Forms of ostracod
| plural | ostracods |
|---|---|
| alternative form | ostracode |
| alternative form | ostracoid |
Origin of ostracod
From Ancient Greek ὀστρακώδης (ostrakṓdēs, “covered with shell”), from ὄστρακον (óstrakon, “clay pot; shell”); compare translingual Ostracoda.
Words formed from ostracod
Questions about ostracod
- What does ostracod mean?
- Ostracod means any of many small crustaceans, of the class Ostracoda, that resemble a shrimp enclosed in a bivalve shell.
- What part of speech is ostracod?
- Ostracod is a noun.
- What is the plural of ostracod?
- The plural of ostracod is ostracods.
Words near ostracod in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ostracod (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: “ostracod.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ostracod. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.