Word of the Day:
zoophyte
What It Means
An animal thought to have the characteristics of a plant, later specifically an invertebrate of the (former) group Zoophyta, comprising sponges, corals and sea anemones.
A plant believed to have the characteristics of an animal, especially a sensitive plant or vegetable lamb.
Zoophyte in Context
“And besides, as there are many Zoophyts, and sensitive Plants […] so have we, in some Authors, Instances of Plants turning into Animals, and Animals into Plants, and the like […]”
Did You Know?
From zoo- + -phyte, after Middle French zoophyte; later reinforced by scientific Latin Zoophyta.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: zoophyte (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the word and reformatted its meaning, examples and origin.
Cite this entry: “zoophyte.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/zoophyte. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.