tentacle

[ ten-tuh-kuhl ]

noun

1. Zoology. any of various slender, flexible processes or appendages in animals, especially invertebrates, that serve as organs of touch, prehension, etc.; feeler.
2. Botany. a sensitive filament or process, as one of the glandular hairs of the sundew.

tentacle

/ tɛnˈtækjʊlə; tɛnˈtækjʊˌlɔɪd; ˈtɛntəkəl /

noun

1. any of various elongated flexible organs that occur near the mouth in many invertebrates and are used for feeding, grasping, etc
2. any of the hairs on the leaf of an insectivorous plant that are used to capture prey
3. something resembling a tentacle, esp in its ability to reach out or grasp

tentacle

/ tĕn′tə-kəl /

1. A narrow, flexible, unjointed part extending from the body of certain animals, such as an octopus, jellyfish, or sea anemone. Tentacles are used for feeling, grasping, or moving.

Derived Forms

• ˈtentacle-ˌlike, adjective
• tentacular, adjective
• ˈtentacled, adjective

Other Words From

• ten·tac·u·lar [ten-, tak, -y, uh, -ler], adjective
• tenta·cle·like ten·tacu·loid adjective
• inter·ten·tacu·lar adjective
• subten·tacu·lar adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of tentacle¹

1755–65; < New Latin tentāculum, equivalent to Latin tentā ( re ) (variant of temptāre to feel, probe) + -culum -cule ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of tentacle¹

C18: from New Latin tentāculum, from Latin tentāre, variant of temptāre to feel

Example Sentences

Her work includes creating a removable extra thumb and a tentacle arm.

From BBC

The fieldwork portion of the study began in 2016, with Clarke and Pearse collecting tentacle samples from both neon and non-neon colored anemones in the intertidal zone near the Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, California.

From Science Daily

"Our neural network belongs to the field of physical reservoir computing, which uses the dynamics of physical processes, such as water surfaces, bacteria or octopus tentacle models, to make calculations," says Professor Frank Cichos, whose research group developed the network with the support of ScaDS.AI.

From Science Daily

The first time I ate calamari, I knew I could chew through any live tentacle like a Johnsonville brat.

From Salon

"Importantly, these stem-like proliferative cells in blastema are different from the resident stem cells localized in the tentacle," said corresponding author Yuichiro Nakajima, lecturer in the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Tokyo.

From Science Daily