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Glite Dictionary
🌀 Spiral-shaped 🐚 A sea mollusk
nautiloid

nautiloid

8.6
A sea animal with a coiled shell that lived in ancient oceans
  • noun
  • /ˈnɔːtəˌlɔɪd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : nautilo
  • Paleontologists study nautiloid fossils to learn more about the marine life that thrived in prehistoric oceans.
  • fossil nautiloids

Examples

  • Scientists discovered a nautiloid fossil that dates back millions of years, revealing details about its ancient habitat.

  • The nautiloid is a marine mollusk known for its coiled shell and is often found in ancient fossil sites.

  • That is the Nautiloid.

    The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

  • In the water above were long, straight nautiloids and free-floating colonial graptolites, rafts of tubular skeletons that housed tiny, tentacled animals called zooids.

    Academic text (1992)

Surface Forms

nautiloid singular
nautiloids plural

Morphology

nautiloid = nautilus (semi-transparent) = nautil + oid

Denotes a creature 'like' a nautilus; the base animal is recognizable but '-oid' is a scientific suffix that may be unfamiliar to some learners.

Etymology

Nautiloid takes its name from Greek nautilus, which meant 'sailor', and the ending -oid meaning 'like', so a nautiloid is a sea animal named for the nautilus and known for its coiled shell.