phylum

English

Etymology

From Latin phylum, from Ancient Greek φῦλον (phûlon, “tribe, race”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfaɪləm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Homophone: filum
• Rhymes: -aɪləm

Noun

phylum (plural phyla or (nonstandard) phylums)

1. (taxonomy) A rank in the classification of organisms, below kingdom and above class; also called a divisio or a division, especially in describing plants; a taxon at that rank

   Mammals belong to the phylum Chordata.

   • 1995 December 14, Natalie Angier, “Flyspeck on a Lobster Lip Turns Biology on Its Ear”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     While biologists are perpetually finding new species, they can almost always fit the organism into one of the existing taxonomic pigeonholes by which scientists classify life forms. The discovery of an organism so unusual that it needs its own phylum is an extremely rare event.

2. (linguistics) A large division of possibly related languages, or a major language family which is not subordinate to another.

   Synonym: superstock

Derived terms

• infraphylum
• interphylum
• intraphylum
• macrophylum
• monophylum
• paraphylum
• phylal
• subphylum
• superphylum

Related terms

• phylo-
• phylon

Translations

(biology, taxonomy) A rank in the classification of organisms, below kingdom and above class

• Afrikaans: filum
• Arabic: شُعْبَة f (šuʕba)
• Armenian: տիպ (hy) (tip)
• Azerbaijani: tip (az)
• Bulgarian: тип (bg) m (tip)
• Burmese: မျိုးပေါင်းစု (myui:paung:cu.)
• Catalan: fílum m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 門 / 门 (mun⁴)

  Hokkien: 門 / 门 (zh-min-nan) (mn̂g, mûi)

  Mandarin: 門 / 门 (zh) (mén)

• Czech: kmen (cs) m
• Danish: række (da) c
• Dutch: stam (nl)
• Esperanto: filumo (eo)
• Estonian: hõimkond
• Faroese: fylki n
• Finnish: pääjakso (fi) (fauna), kaari (fi) (flora, fungi)
• French: embranchement (fr) m
• Galician: filo (gl) m
• Georgian: ტიპი (ka) (ṭiṗi)
• German: Stamm (de) m
• Greek: φύλο (el) n (fýlo)
• Hebrew: מַעֲרָכָה (he) f (ma'arachá)
• Hindi: संघ (hi) m (saṅgh)
• Hungarian: törzs (hu)
• Icelandic: fylking (is) f
• Indonesian: filum (id)
• Interlingua: phylo
• Italian: filo (it) m, tipo (it) m, divisione (it) f
• Japanese: 門 (ja) (mon)
• Khmer: សាខា (km) (sar khar)
• Korean: 문 (ko) (mun)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: liq (ku)

• Latvian: tips m
• Lithuanian: tipas m
• Macedonian: колено n (koleno)
• Malay: filum
• Maori: pori
• Mongolian: хүрээ (mn) (xüree)
• Occitan: filum m
• Persian: شاخه (fa) (šâxe)
• Portuguese: filo (pt) m
• Romanian: încrengătură (ro) f
• Russian: (zoology) тип (ru) m (tip), (botany) отде́л (ru) m (otdél)
• Slovak: kmeň (sk)
• Slovene: deblo (sl) n
• Spanish: filo (es) m
• Swedish: stam (sv) c, fylum (sv) n, provins (sv) c, phylum (sv) n
• Tagalog: sangahay
• Thai: ไฟลัม (th) (fai-lâm)
• Turkish: şube (tr), dal (tr), filum (tr)
• Ukrainian: (zoology) тип (uk) m (typ), (botany) ві́дділ m (víddil)
• Vietnamese: ngành (vi)
• Welsh: ffylwm (cy)

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fi.lɔm/

Noun

phylum m (plural phylums)

1. (taxonomy) phylum

   Synonym: embranchement

Further reading

• “phylum”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek φῦλον (phûlon).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpʰyː.ɫũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈfiː.lum]

Noun

phȳlum n (genitive phȳlī); second declension

1. (New Latin) phylum

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	phȳlum	phȳla
genitive	phȳlī	phȳlōrum
dative	phȳlō	phȳlīs
accusative	phȳlum	phȳla
ablative	phȳlō	phȳlīs
vocative	phȳlum	phȳla