tentacu-, tentac-

Related to a creature that has structure-like arms which are used for catching food or for moving from one place to another one: Some tentaculiferous creatures include sea anemones, tubiculous annelids, and cuttlefish.

Having the form or appearance of long, thin arm-like body parts of certain sea creatures: The zoologist, Mr. Carter, specialized in finding and identifying as many nentaculiform shapes and structures of animals as he and his colleagues could locate.

Descriptive of arm-like bodily structures that some creatures utilize for feeling and holding something, for catching and consuming food, and for relocating to other areas: The octopi are the best known oceanic animals that have multiple tentaculigerous appendages.

One of the vesicular (small sac, especially one containing fluid) or cystic auditory (hearing) organs of a hydrozoan (water animal): The tentaculocysts are modified tentacles that act as bodily parts for hearing and often have eye-spots on them; so, tentaculocysts are sometimes also a combination of visual and auditory organs in the form of modified tentacles.

Resembling or similar to a variety of slender, flexible processes or appendages in animals; especially, invertebrates, that serve as devices for touching, feeling, and catching food: Members of the tentaculoid species are specialized carnivorous predators with sucker-lined tentacles and well-developed sense organs.

Some of the more tentaculoid animals are larger than most of the other invertebrates (without backbones); for example, the giant squid, "Architeuthis", may develop into 20 meters (slightly over 65 feet) in length, which is said to be by far the largest of the living invertebrate tentaculoid species.

Certain creatures which live on the outskirts of hydrozoan or water-animal areas: The tentaculozooids, like certain polyps, have tubular bodies with rings of tentacles around their mouths and on top of their heads and they usually exist in colonies.

A feeler or extended structures of stiff hairs, as when a creature feels or perceives by its senses; especially, by touch: There are some animals that have tentacula which are usually situated around their mouths, and some of them even have such sensitive features on the surfaces of their heads.

One example of an animal with tentacula is the tentacled snake which has a unique pair of soft, fleshy tentacles on its nose just in front of its mouth which apparently have sensory functions.

For more information, see tentacled snake in this unit.