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mollusca

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Mollusca

English

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Noun

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mollusca pl (plural only)

  1. (archaic) Molluscs.
    • 1851, S[amuel] P[ickworth] Woodward, “Classes of the Mollusca”, in A Manual of the Mollusca; or, A Rudimentary Treatise of Recent and Fossil Shells, London: John Weale, [], page 6:
      The mollusca are animals with soft bodies, enveloped in a muscular skin, and usually protected by a univalve or bivalve shell. [] The univalve mollusca are encephalous, or furnished with a distinct head; they have eyes and tentacula, and the mouth is armed with jaws.
    • 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Natural Selection”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, [], London: John Murray, [], →OCLC, page 100:
      Turning for a very brief space to animals: on the land there are some hermaphrodites, as land-mollusca and earth-worms; but these all pair.
    • 1862, Arthur Lutze, translated by Charles J[ulius] Hempel, “[Appendix.] The Human Body”, in Manual of Homœopathic Theory and Practice. Designed for the Use of Physicians and Families., New York, N.Y., Philadelphia, Pa.: [] William Radde, [], page 532:
      The amphibious animals are provided with special organs for the sense of smell, although a very delicate sense of smell is likewise met with among the crustacea, such as crabs, mollusca and insects.
    • 1886 July, Keswal [pseudonym; W. F. Sinclair], “Notes on the Waters of Western India. Part I.—‘British Deccan and Khandesh.’”, in R[obert] A[rmitage] Sterndale, E[dward] H[amilton] Aitken, editors, The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, volume I, number 3, Bombay: [] [T]he Education Society’s Press [], page 114:
      Probably frogs, crabs, mollusca, and insects form their chief diet; []
    • 1910, Frank Leverett, Comparison of North American and European Glacial Deposits, Berlin: Gebrüder Borntraeger, page 302:
      The löss fauna is largely of terrestrial mollusca, as in America, []
    • 1940, Frank F[itch] Grout, “[The Sedimentary Rocks] Limestones”, in A Handbook of Rocks for Use Without the Petrographic Microscope, 6th edition, New York, N.Y.: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., [], page 169:
      The gentle slopes are favorable to the growth of various mollusca whose hard parts contribute additional material to the growing limestones.
    • 1964, V[alentine] J[ackson] Chapman, Coastal Vegetation, Oxford, Oxon, []: Pergamon Press; New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →LCCN, pages 16 and 31:
      On salt marshes, burrowing crabs, mollusca and annelids undoubtedly assist in aeration of the soil. [] One can, for example, make a study of the algae that occur on the shells of some of the larger mollusca or on barnacles.

See also

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Latin

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Feminine of molluscus (soft), from mollis (soft).

Noun

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mollusca f (genitive molluscae); first declension

  1. a kind of soft nut with a thin shell
Declension
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First-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative mollusca molluscae
genitive molluscae molluscārum
dative molluscae molluscīs
accusative molluscam molluscās
ablative molluscā molluscīs
vocative mollusca molluscae
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Adjective

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mollusca

  1. inflection of molluscus:
    1. nominative/vocative feminine singular
    2. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter plural

Adjective

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molluscā

  1. ablative feminine singular of molluscus

Etymology 2

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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mollusca

  1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of molluscum