phylum
/ˈfaɪləm/
phylum noun: a rank in the classification of organisms, below kingdom and above class; also called a divisio or a division, especially in describing plants; a taxon at that rank.
Noun
phylum (plural phyla or (nonstandard) phylums)
- A rank in the classification of organisms, below kingdom and above class; also called a divisio or a division, especially in describing plants; a taxon at that rank
- Mammals belong to the phylum Chordata.
- While biologists are perpetually finding new species, they can almost always fit the organism into one of the existing taxonomic pigeonholes by which scientists classify life forms. The discovery of an organism so unusual that it needs its own phylum is an extremely rare event.1995 December 14, Natalie Angier, “Flyspeck on a Lobster Lip Turns Biology on Its Ear”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
- A large division of possibly related languages, or a major language family which is not subordinate to another.
- Synonyms:
- superstock
phylum meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Tagalog
phylum in Hindi
- (biology, taxonomy) A rank in the classification of organisms, below kingdom and above class
- संघ saṅgh
phylum in Tamil
- கணம், தொகுதி
phylum in Urdu
- phylum
- عائلہ 'āila
phylum in Tagalog
- (biology, taxonomy) A rank in the classification of organisms, below kingdom and above class
- sangahay
More languagesFewer languages
- phylum in Arabic
- شُعْبَة šuʕba
- phylum in Malay
- filum
- phylum in Indonesian
- filum
- phylum in Persian
- شاخه šâxe
- phylum in Thai
- ไฟลัม fai-lâm
- phylum in Vietnamese
- ngành
- phylum in Myanmar
- မျိုးပေါင်းစု myui:paung:cu.
Examples of phylum in a sentence
- Phylum is the taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class.
- Achaetous gill-less tails are a typical trait for the juvenile stage of development in species of Arenicolidae (phylum Annelida).
- A technique that is often poorly used is the “phylum and characteristics” approach.
Synonyms of phylum
Forms of phylum
| plural | phyla |
|---|---|
| plural (nonstandard) | phylums |
Origin of phylum
From Latin phylum, from Ancient Greek φῦλον (phûlon, “tribe, race”).
Words formed from phylum
Words that rhyme with phylum
Questions about phylum
- What does phylum mean?
- Phylum means a rank in the classification of organisms, below kingdom and above class; also called a divisio or a division, especially in describing plants; a taxon at that rank.
- What is phylum in Hindi?
- Phylum in Hindi is संघ (saṅgh). See Phylum meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is phylum?
- Phylum is a noun.
- How do you pronounce phylum?
- Phylum is pronounced /ˈfaɪləm/.
- What is the plural of phylum?
- The plural of phylum is phyla.
Words near phylum in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: phylum (page history and authors); phylum (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); عائلہ (Urdu) (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)-Vealhurl-phylum.wav.
Cite this entry: “phylum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/phylum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.