invertebrate

«invertebrate» in Mova's school dictionary: an animal without a backbone, such as an insect, spider… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

noun (an invertebrate, invertebrates); adjective (invertebrate)

meaning for a pupil

1) An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone, such as an insect, spider, worm, snail, jellyfish or crab. tree →

2) Invertebrate (adjective) means having no backbone. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science lessons on classifying animals, animals are sorted into vertebrates (with backbones: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) and invertebrates. Most animal species on Earth are invertebrates. Some have hard outer skeletons (exoskeletons) like insects and crabs, some have shells like snails, and some are soft like worms. Pupils go on minibeast hunts to find invertebrates.

examples

• A worm is an invertebrate because it has no backbone. tree →
• Insects, spiders and snails are invertebrates. tree →
• We went on a hunt for invertebrates under logs. tree →
• Most animals on Earth are invertebrates. tree →
• A crab is an invertebrate with a hard shell called an exoskeleton. tree →
• An octopus is a clever invertebrate. tree →

note

Countable: invertebrates. in- + vertebrate (vertebra = a bone of the backbone). Opposite: vertebrate. Trap: having a hard shell does not make an animal a vertebrate; crabs and snails are still invertebrates.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «invertebrate» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.