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nauplius.

A crustacean larva that has three pairs of locomotive organs (corresponding to antennules, antennae, and mandibles), a median eye, and little or no segmentation of the body.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈnɔː.plɪ.əs/Received-Pronunciation/ˈnɔ.pli.əs/General-American/ˈnɑ-/General-American
  1. A crustacean larva that has three pairs of locomotive organs (corresponding to antennules, antennae, and mandibles), a median eye, and little or no segmentation of the body.

Where this word comes from

] Borrowed from New Latin Nauplius (former genus name) (coined by Danish naturalist Otto Friedrich Müller (1730–1784) who mistakenly thought the larvae were a separate genus of animal), from Latin nauplius (“argonaut, paper nautilus (genus Argonauta)”), from Ancient Greek ναύπλιος (naúplios, “type of shellfish”), from ναῦς (naûs, “ship”) + πλέω (pléō, “to sail”); compare Latin Nauplius (“mythological king of Euboea”), from Ancient Greek Ναύπλιος (Naúplios, “mythological founder of the city of Nauplia (Nafplio), a son of Poseidon and Amymone”). The plural nauplii is from Latin nauplius + -iī (plural of -ius).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.