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siphonophore

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Southern US/saɪˈfɑ.nəˌfo˞/

siphonophore noun: any transparent marine hydrozoans, of the order Siphonophorae, that float or swim as colonies of polyps.

siphonophore: any transparent marine hydrozoans, of the order Siphonophorae, that float or swim as colonies of...
Image: Image courtesy of Islands in the Sea 2002, NOAA/OER, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

siphonophore (plural siphonophores)

  1. Any transparent marine hydrozoans, of the order Siphonophorae, that float or swim as colonies of polyps.
    • Is an individual hydra polyp analogous to an entire siphonophore colony – or is it more like a member of that colony?2017 October 24, Derek J Skillings, “Life is not easily bounded”, in Aeon, archived from the original on 08 Feb 2018
    • However, two beaches in Tarragona in southern Catalonia were closed in July after Portuguese man o’war (Physalia physalis) were spotted in the water. The sting of this siphonophore (it is not technically a jellyfish, but they are closely related) is especially painful.2024 August 24, Stephen Burgen, “Resorts on Spain’s Costa Brava struggle with invasion of jellyfish as seas warm”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
    Synonyms:
    siphonophoran

Synonyms of siphonophore

Forms of siphonophore

pluralsiphonophores

Origin of siphonophore

From siphono- + -phore, likely from translingual Siphonophorae.

Words formed from siphonophore

Questions about siphonophore

What does siphonophore mean?
Siphonophore means any transparent marine hydrozoans, of the order Siphonophorae, that float or swim as colonies of polyps.
What part of speech is siphonophore?
Siphonophore is a noun.
How do you pronounce siphonophore?
Siphonophore is pronounced /saɪˈfɑ.nəˌfo˞/ (Southern US).
What is the plural of siphonophore?
The plural of siphonophore is siphonophores.

Words near siphonophore in the dictionary

  1. siphonoglyphe
  2. siphonoglyphes
  3. siphonoglyphs
  4. siphonophoran
  5. siphonophorans
  6. siphonophore
  7. siphonophores
  8. siphonophorid
  9. siphonophoridan
  10. siphonophoridans
  11. siphonophorids

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: siphonophore (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: “siphonophore.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/siphonophore. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.