zoophyte

American  

[zoh-uh-fahyt] / ˈzoʊ əˌfaɪt /

noun

1. any of various invertebrate animals resembling a plant, as a coral or a sea anemone.

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zoophyte British  

/ ˌzəʊəˈfɪtɪk, ˈzəʊəˌfaɪt /

noun

1. any animal resembling a plant, such as a sea anemone

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Other Word Forms

• zoophytic adjective
• zoophytical adjective

Etymology

Origin of zoophyte

1615–25; < New Latin zōophyton < Greek zōióphyton. See zoo-, -phyte

Example Sentences

The name zoophyte comes from two Greek words—zoön, an animal, and phyton, a plant—and therefore has the literal signification of animal-plant.

From Harper's Young People, April 13, 1880 An Illustrated Weekly by Various

In only a year afterwards—as an example of the progress which a resolute woman can make—she was familiar with zoophyte fossils, and had succeeded in dissecting the nervous system of a bee.

From Heart and Science A Story of the Present Time by Collins, Wilkie

It's a zoophyte, not a real sea-weed; and, indeed, not a vegetable at all, but the very lowest form of animal life.

From Bosom Friends A Seaside Story by Brazil, Angela

All has utterly disappeared, or, to paraphrase one of Pope's couplets, "Beast, bird, fish, insect--what no eye can scan, Nor glass can reach--from zoophyte to man."

From Life: Its True Genesis by Wright, R. W.

Bates was as strictly local in his ideas as the zoophyte which has clung all its life to one rock.

From Vixen, Volume II. by Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)