Library / English Dictionary

TENTACLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of various elongated tactile or prehensile flexible organs that occur on the head or near the mouth in many animals; used for feeling or grasping or locomotion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("tentacle" is a kind of...):

appendage; outgrowth; process (a natural prolongation or projection from a part of an organism either animal or plant)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tentacle"):

antenna; feeler (one of a pair of mobile appendages on the head of e.g. insects and crustaceans; typically sensitive to touch and taste)

barbel; feeler (slender tactile process on the jaws of a fish)

Derivation:

tentacular (of or relating to or resembling tentacles)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Something that acts like a tentacle in its ability to grasp and hold

Example:

caught in the tentacles of organized crime

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("tentacle" is a kind of...):

grasp; grip (an intellectual hold or understanding)

Derivation:

tentacular (of or relating to or resembling tentacles)

Credits