Word.ws English Dictionary

pteropod

pteropod noun: any of free-swimming pelagic sea snails and sea slugs, of the suborder Thecosomata, that have winglike lobes on the feet; a sea butterfly.

pteropod: any of free-swimming pelagic sea snails and sea slugs, of the suborder Thecosomata, that have...
Image: Photo by Russ Hopcroft, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

pteropod (plural pteropods)

  1. Any of free-swimming pelagic sea snails and sea slugs, of the suborder Thecosomata, that have winglike lobes on the feet; a sea butterfly.
    • Pteropods, also known as sea butterflies, are marine gastropods adapted to pelagic life.[…]When pteropods constitute a high percentage of the ooze the deposit is called pteropod ooze.1998, Yvonne Herman, “5: Pteropods”, in B.U. Haq, A. Boersma, editors, Introduction to Marine Micropaleontology, page 151
    • For fans of the undersea sci-fi classic The Abyss, a pteropod seems a likely inspiration for the ethereal alien creatures that were the saviors at the film's end.
      The muscular foot that most snails use for locomotion has been modified in the pteropods into delicate fins for swimming.2011, Ellen Prager, Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime: The Oceans' Oddest Creatures and Why They Matter, page 33

pteropod meaning in Tamil

pteropod in Tamil

சிறகுக்கால் நத்தை, சிறகுக்காலி

Synonyms of pteropod

Forms of pteropod

pluralpteropods

Origin of pteropod

From Ancient Greek πτερόν (pterón, “a wing, a feather”) + ποδός (podós), genitive singular of πούς (poús, “a foot, a leg”). Equivalent to ptero- + -pod.

Words formed from pteropod

Questions about pteropod

What does pteropod mean?
Pteropod means any of free-swimming pelagic sea snails and sea slugs, of the suborder Thecosomata, that have winglike lobes on the feet; a sea butterfly.
What is pteropod in Tamil?
Pteropod in Tamil is சிறகுக்கால் நத்தை, சிறகுக்காலி. See Pteropod meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is pteropod?
Pteropod is a noun.
What is the plural of pteropod?
The plural of pteropod is pteropods.

Words near pteropod in the dictionary

  1. pteropids
  2. pteropine
  3. pteropines
  4. pteropleural
  5. pteropleuron
  6. pteropod
  7. pteropod ooze
  8. pteropodid
  9. pteropodids
  10. pteropodine
  11. pteropodines

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pteropod (page history and authors); pteropod (Tamil Wiktionary) (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:

Cite this entry: “pteropod.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pteropod. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.