tentacu-, tentac-

Descriptive of any creature that has two long, thin, armlike parts: While researching zoological species in the sea, Brian noticed that there were some bitentacle animals in addition to the octopi (eight-tentacle animals) and squids (ten-tentacle animals).

One example of a bitentacle creature is the cuttlefish that has eight arms and two tentacles that have toothless suckers with which they grab and hold their prey.

To utilize two elongated, flexible, unsegmented extensions, or organs, like those surrounding the mouth or oral cavity of the squid in order to feel, to hold on to something, or to move from place to place: Some sea creatures bitentaculate in tidal pools and are carefully studied by oceanographers.

1. Corals, jellyfish, sea anemones, and hydras (several small freshwater animals), having naked cylindrical bodies and oral openings surrounded by armlike parts: Cnidarian tentacles consist of rings of elongated and flexible extensions which are used to capture food and to defend themselves against predators.

Cells in the cnidarian tentacles and in the outer body surfaces are armed with stinging, harpoon-like structures called "nematocysts" which contain toxins that can cause their victims to have paralysis.

2. Etymology: from Greek cnidaria, "nettle" and refers to the stinging structures that are characteristic of these animals.

Characteristic of having numerous elongated and flexible organs that occur on the head or near the mouth which are used for feeding, feeling, holding on to something, or locomotion (movement); such as, the octopus, squid, and the jellyfish: The multitentacular creature that most people are aware of is the octopus which has a bilaterally symmetrical body with a head and a pair of eyes on each side and tentacles that are arranged around its mouth for consuming food.

When an octopus moves in the water from one place to another, it is the rear part of the body that goes first as its multitentacular body parts are used to propel it around.

A creature with eight tentacles: The animated humanoid below demonstrates what an octotentacle is, as shown by her upper tentacles, which can be used as arms, and the lower four tentacles that function as feet.

Actually, octotentacle is a more accurate term than octopus, which means "eight feet", because it is obvious that octopi really do not have any "feet"; however, they do have eight tentacles.

Referring to the feathery finger-like extensions surrounding the mouths of some underwater animals: A polyp is a pinnitentacular creature in the ocean that has a body like a tube and a ring of tentacles around its mouth; or a coral, having a cylindrical body and oral openings which are usually surrounded by pinnitentacular structures.

Four flexible arm like parts that are used for feeling and moving around: A strange oceanic creature that has quadritentacles which provide it with anatomical parts so it can navigate through water and catch prey for eating.

1. Long, thin, armlike parts of some sea animals which are used for feeling and holding things, catching food, or moving around; such as, a squid, the octopus, and the jellyfish: Bigfin squids have huge wing-like fins extending from their mantles and very long, slender tentacles sticking stiffly out from their bodies, then bending at right angles and trailing downwards; which suggest that the bigfin is waiting for prey to blunder into them; and, although their bodies are less than half a meter long, the tentacles extend seven meters or more.
2. A slender projection of invertebrates that are equipped with receptors ; such as, those surrounding the mouths or oral cavities of squids: Like octopi, squids also use their tentacles to help them get around, feed on, and to hold onto natural structures.
3. One of the sensitive glandular hairs or filaments on the leaves of insectivorous (insect-eating) plants, such as the sundew whose secretions trap and digest prey: Irwin noticed that if anything touches the tentacles on the leaves of the sundew plant, the leaves automatically close up, as if trying to capture whatever might be coming into contact with them.
4. A part or extension of an organization that has the ability to grasp, to influence, or to control certain aspects of societies: There was an espionage network run by the government that had far-reaching tentacles.

Henry's cousin was caught in the tentacles of organized crime.

The neighborhood has been caught in the tentacles of narcotics.

Relating to a structure that entraps food and mucus that may be employed by certain sea organisms to facilitate the capture of particles: Sea cucumbers, nuculoid bivalve mollusks, and some tube-dwelling polychaetes (marine worms) gather detritus (loose fragments of organic waste) by means of tentacle structures at the sediment-water area and transport them to their mouths.

Some tentacle feeders are anemones and corals that use various types of stinging, entrapping, and mucus-laden nematocysts, or specialized cells, that contain a barbed and threadlike tube that delivers paralyzing stings when they are sent into attackers or prey.

Provided with or having elongated flexible organs used for feeding, grasping, moving, etc.: Many creatures that live in the tidal pools are tentacled animals.

An unusual reptile that lives in rivers: The tentacled snake is distinguished from other snakes by having a unique pair of soft, fleshy tentacles on its nose.

Tentacled snakes are sluggish and nocturnal, and they hunt by lying in weed-choked water, waiting for prey to swim by.

A female tentacled snake gives birth to 5-13 live young ones underwater.

Pertaining to or of the nature of an elongated and flexibly unsegmented extension that is used for grasping, moving around, touching and feeling, etc.: Gerhard and the other biologists were studying the tidal pool animals to determine which ones were the most tentacular.

A passage that extends into the elongated, flexible, arm-like extensions of an animal: Some invertebrates have tentacular canals in their tentacles; such as, "jellyfish" which are free-swimming marine animals consisting of umbrella-shaped bodies with trailing tentacles; and it should be noted that these soft-bodied animals are not fish.

To use the organic projections, or appendages, that are equipped with sensory receptors and which are used for holding things; such as, food and for moving around: There are some sea creatures that tentaculate with the projections around their mouths in order to obtain food.

Descriptive of extended and flexible growths; usually, occurring on the head or around the mouth of an animal which is used to touch or to hold something, or to change locations: There is no doubt that many tentaculated animals in oceans and seas still have not been identified by scientists.