Portuguese man-of-war
Syllables: Por·tu·guese man-of-war/ˈpɔː.tʃʊˌɡiːz ˌmæn.ə(v)ˈwɔː/US/ˈpoɹ.tʃəˌɡiz ˌmæn.ə(v)ˈwoɹ/
Portuguese man-of-war noun: physalia physalis, a marine cnidarian consisting of a floating colony of hydrozoans attached to a float, superficially resembling a jellyfish.
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Noun
Portuguese man-of-war (plural Portuguese men-of-war)
- Physalia physalis, a marine cnidarian consisting of a floating colony of hydrozoans attached to a float, superficially resembling a jellyfish.
- Once the great streamers of a Portuguese man-of-war floated slowly by. They almost reached his head from the surface, fifteen feet away, and he remembered the whiplash of a sting from the contact of one of their tendrils that had burned for three of his days at Manatee Bay. If they caught a man...1954, Ian Fleming, “Beau Desert”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 203
- However, two beaches in Tarragona in southern Catalonia were closed in July after Portuguese man o’war (Physalia physalis) were spotted in the water.2024 August 24, Stephen Burgen, “Resorts on Spain’s Costa Brava struggle with invasion of jellyfish as seas warm”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- Synonyms:
- bluebottle, man-of-war
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see Portuguese, man-of-war.
Portuguese man-of-war meaning in Malay and Indonesian
Portuguese man-of-war in Malay
- Physalia physalis
- ubur-ubur api
Portuguese man-of-war in Indonesian
- Physalia physalis
- ubur-ubur api
Synonyms of Portuguese man-of-war
Forms of Portuguese man-of-war
| plural | Portuguese men-of-war |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Portuguese man-o-war |
| alternative form | Portuguese man-o'-war |
Origin of Portuguese man-of-war
From Portuguese (adjective) + man-of-war, from the resemblance of the organism’s float to a former Portuguese warship at full sail.
Words that rhyme with Portuguese man-of-war
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about Portuguese man-of-war
- What does Portuguese man-of-war mean?
- Portuguese man-of-war means physalia physalis, a marine cnidarian consisting of a floating colony of hydrozoans attached to a float, superficially resembling a jellyfish.
- What is Portuguese man-of-war in Malay?
- Portuguese man-of-war in Malay is ubur-ubur api. See Portuguese man-of-war meaning in Malay.
- What part of speech is Portuguese man-of-war?
- Portuguese man-of-war is a noun.
- How do you pronounce Portuguese man-of-war?
- Portuguese man-of-war is pronounced /ˈpɔː.tʃʊˌɡiːz ˌmæn.ə(v)ˈwɔː/ (UK).
- What is the plural of Portuguese man-of-war?
- The plural of Portuguese man-of-war is Portuguese men-of-war.
Words near Portuguese man-of-war in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Portuguese man-of-war (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Portuguese man-of-war.wav.
Cite this entry: “Portuguese man-of-war.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/portuguese_man-of-war. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.