scleractinian
/ˌsklɪəɹækˈtɪniən/
scleractinian adjective: of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the corals of the order Scleractinia.
Adjective
scleractinian (comparative more scleractinian, superlative most scleractinian)
- Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the corals of the order Scleractinia.
- In the buildup to the big night—the mass spawning always occurs after sundown—the corals begin to “set,” which might be thought of as the scleractinian version of going into labor.2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, chapter 7, in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Henry Holt and Company
Noun
scleractinian (plural scleractinians)
- Any of the corals of the order Scleractinia.
Forms of scleractinian
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more scleractinian |
| superlative | most scleractinian |
| Noun | |
| plural | scleractinians |
Origin of scleractinian
From Translingual Scleractinia + English -an.
Questions about scleractinian
- What does scleractinian mean?
- Scleractinian means of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the corals of the order Scleractinia.
- What part of speech is scleractinian?
- Scleractinian can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce scleractinian?
- Scleractinian is pronounced /ˌsklɪəɹækˈtɪniən/.
Words near scleractinian in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scleractinian (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: “scleractinian.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scleractinian. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.