phylum

American  

[fahy-luhm] / ˈfaɪ ləm /

noun

PLURAL

phyla

1. Biology. the primary subdivision of a taxonomic kingdom, grouping together all classes of organisms that have the same body plan.

2. Linguistics. a category consisting of language stocks that, because of cognates in vocabulary, are considered likely to be related by common origin.

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phylum British  

/ ˈfaɪləm /

noun

1. a major taxonomic division of living organisms that contain one or more classes. An example is the phylum Arthropoda (insects, crustaceans, arachnids, etc, and myriapods)

2. any analogous group, such as a group of related language families or linguistic stocks

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phylum Scientific  

/ fī′ləm /

PLURAL

phyla

1. A group of organisms ranking above a class and below a kingdom.

2. See Table at taxonomy

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phylum Cultural  

1. plur. phyla One of the major divisions of the kingdoms of living things; the second-largest standard unit of biological classification. The arthropods, chordates, and mollusks are phyla. Phyla in the plant kingdom are frequently called divisions. (See Linnean classification.)

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Other Word Forms

• phylar adjective

Etymology

Origin of phylum

1875–80; < New Latin < Greek phŷlon tribe, stock; phylon

Example Sentences

In a recent study published by the journal "Cell Biology," scientists describe finding a group of demosponges — the most diverse class in the phylum known as Porifera — in the Arctic Sea.

From Salon

Insects, spiders, crustaceans and many-footed critters such as millipedes are members of the phylum Arthropoda.

From Washington Post

Neither jellyfish, coral or anemone, this organism, known as a corallimorph, is one of the lesser-known members of the Cnidaria phylum and shown here in a fluorescence photo.

From Scientific American

To assume near-identical viruses were infecting all the cells studied in this report would imply that some viruses are capable of infecting organisms from different phyla, the taxonomic rank just below kingdom, the authors say.

From Scientific American

Corals — multicellular marine invertebrates belonging to the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria — usually live in compact colonies composed of individual structures called polyps.

From Nature