Word.ws English Dictionary

pilidium

pilidium noun: the free-swimming larva of certain proboscis worms, somewhat resembling a deerstalker hat. It has no resemblance to its parent, and the young worm undergoes development in its interior.

pilidium: the free-swimming larva of certain proboscis worms, somewhat resembling a deerstalker hat. It has...
Image: Ambrosius Arnold Willem Hubrecht; Arthur Everett Shipley, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

pilidium (plural pilidia)

  1. The free-swimming larva of certain proboscis worms, somewhat resembling a deerstalker hat. It has no resemblance to its parent, and the young worm undergoes development in its interior.

Forms of pilidium

pluralpilidia

Origin of pilidium

From Ancient Greek πῑλίδιον (pīlídion, “little cap”), diminutive of πῖλος (pîlos), probably influenced by other formations in -idium, like miracidium, planidium, and coracidium.

Questions about pilidium

What does pilidium mean?
Pilidium means the free-swimming larva of certain proboscis worms, somewhat resembling a deerstalker hat. It has no resemblance to its parent, and the young worm undergoes development in its interior.
What part of speech is pilidium?
Pilidium is a noun.
What is the plural of pilidium?
The plural of pilidium is pilidia.

Words near pilidium in the dictionary

  1. pilicock
  2. pilicocks
  3. pilid
  4. pilidia
  5. pilidial
  6. pilidium
  7. pilids
  8. pilifer
  9. piliferous
  10. pilifers
  11. piliform

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pilidium (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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