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Glite Dictionary
🐌 Snail class 🐌 Snail group
Gastropoda

Gastropoda

1 8.9
A large group of animals like snails and slugs that have a muscular foot and a head with tentacles
  • noun
  • /ˌɡæstrəˈpoʊdə/
  • Specialized
: gasterópodo
  • In the marine environment, species of Gastropoda exhibit a wide range of body forms and shell characteristics.

Examples

  • Let's name the species that live in the sea Mollusca and gastropoda, arthropoda, echinoderma, chordata

    Finding Nemo (2003)

  • I'll take up my twitfriend Gastropoda's crusade and say this stinks of clueless flackery.

    Blog text (23)

  • Garden snails are members of the class Gastropoda, which include creatures with a muscular foot and often a coiled shell.

  • The class Gastropoda is characterized by a distinct head with tentacles and includes both snails and slugs.

Synonyms

Gasteropoda
vsGastropoda
  • Specialized
9.2

A group of animals like snails and slugs that usually move on a foot and often have a coiled shell

focuses on a head with tentacles instead of often having a coiled shell

Surface Forms

Gastropoda singular
Gastropodas plural

Morphology

Gastropoda = gastropod (semi-transparent) = gastro + pod + a

The base 'gastropod' is a recognizable scientific term built from Greek combining forms, but the final '-a' is a Latin/taxonomic ending that does not add an obvious everyday meaning.

Etymology

Gastropoda comes from Greek roots gastro- and -poda, meaning 'stomach' and 'foot', so it literally says 'stomach-foot'. This fits snails and slugs because they move on a large, strong foot under their body, and the gastro- part is the same as in gastric, which means 'stomach', helping you remember it.