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polyp.

A cylindrical coelenterate, such as the hydra, having a mouth surrounded with tentacles.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈpɑlɪp/General-American/ˈpɒlɪp/Received-Pronunciation
  1. A cylindrical coelenterate, such as the hydra, having a mouth surrounded with tentacles.

  2. A cylindrical coelenterate, such as the hydra, having a mouth surrounded with tentacles. The sessile life stage of many cnidarians, whose free-swimming stage, if present, is the medusa.

  3. An abnormal growth protruding from a mucous membrane.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁-der. Proto-Indo-European *polh₁ús Ancient Greek πολῠ́ς (polŭ́s) Ancient Greek πολυ- (polu-) Proto-Indo-European *ped- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *pṓdsder. Ancient Greek πούς (poús) Ancient Greek πολύπους (polúpous)bor. Latin polypusbor. English polyp From Latin polypus (“a polyp, a polypus in the nose”), from Ancient Greek πολύπους (polúpous, from πολύς (polús, “many”) + πούς (poús, “foot”)). Doublet of polypus.

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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.