tentacle
/ˈtɛntəkəl/
tentacle noun: an elongated, boneless, flexible organ or limb of some animals, such as the octopus and squid.
Noun
tentacle (plural tentacles)
- An elongated, boneless, flexible organ or limb of some animals, such as the octopus and squid.
- With one blow of the axe, Captain Nemo cut this formidable tentacle, that slid wriggling down the ladder.1873, Jules Verne, “The “Devil Fish.”—Terrible Encounter.—Crushed to Death in the Arms of a Monster.—Ned Land saved by the Captain.—“Only Revenge”.”, in [anonymous], transl., Twenty Thousand Leagues...
- The body was small, but fitted with two bunches of prehensile organs, like long tentacles, immediately under the mouth.1897, H. G. Wells, The Crystal Egg
- One of the glandular hairs on the leaves of certain insectivorous plants.
- An insidious reach or influence.
- the tentacles of the criminal underworld
- New extensions into the outer London dormitory areas also have been constructed, and at the present moment the tentacles of London's Underground are slowly but surely extending eastwards into Essex to relieve congestion on the suburban lines of the former Great Eastern Railway.1948 January and February, C. R. L. Coles, “The Grouping Era”, in Railway Magazine, page 21
- Something like a zoological limb.
- An officer employed to drive out to troops and transmit back requests for support via a special radio link.
- A joint RAF/Army staffed Air Support Control (ASC) headquarters was established at each army corps and each armoured division, linked to the forward brigades by a 'tentacle' equipped with two-way wireless telegraphy.2013, Dr Ian Gooderson, Air Power at the Battlefront, page 26
Verb
tentacle (third-person singular simple present tentacles, present participle tentacling, simple past and past participle tentacled)
- To move like a tentacle
tentacle meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada
tentacle in Hindi
- elongated, boneless, flexible appendage
- स्पर्शक sparśak
tentacle in Tamil
- உணர்கொம்பு, பரிசக்கொம்பு, சுரப்பி உரோமம், உணர்நீட்சி, உணர் உரோமம்
tentacle in Malayalam
- സ്പർശശ്യംഗം, സ്പർശനി
tentacle in Kannada
- ಬಳ್ಳಿಗಾಲು, ಗ್ರಹಣಾಂಗ, ಸ್ಪರ್ಶಾಂಗ
More languagesFewer languages
- tentacle in Punjabi
- ਤੰਦ tand, تند tand
- tentacle in Tagalog
- galamay
- tentacle in Arabic
- مِجَس mijas, لامِس lāmis
- tentacle in Vietnamese
- xúc tu
Examples of tentacle in a sentence
- The infundibulate Bryozoa have a circular arrangement of the tentacles upon the disk.
- The squid wrapped its slithy tentacles around its prey.
- I run to shore, trying to keep the tentacles off me, but it's too big and strong.
Synonyms of tentacle
Forms of tentacle
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | tentacles |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | tentacles |
| present participle | tentacling |
| past participle | tentacled |
| past | tentacled |
Origin of tentacle
From New Latin tentāculum, from tentō. Doublet of tentaculum.
Words formed from tentacle
Questions about tentacle
- What does tentacle mean?
- Tentacle means an elongated, boneless, flexible organ or limb of some animals, such as the octopus and squid.
- What is tentacle in Hindi?
- Tentacle in Hindi is स्पर्शक (sparśak). See Tentacle meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is tentacle?
- Tentacle can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce tentacle?
- Tentacle is pronounced /ˈtɛntəkəl/.
- What is the plural of tentacle?
- The plural of tentacle is tentacles.
Words near tentacle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tentacle (page history and authors); tentacle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tentacle (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tentacle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); تند (Punjabi) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-tentacle.ogg.
Cite this entry: “tentacle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tentacle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.