Definition of coelenterate Coelenterate

coe•len•ter•ate

We found 6 definitions of coelenterate from 5 different sources.

What does coelenterate mean?

Noun Plural: coelenterates
coelenterate - radially symmetrical animals having saclike bodies with only one opening and tentacles with stinging structures; they occur in polyp and medusa forms
		cnidarian
		invertebrate any animal lacking a backbone or notochord; the term is not used as a scientific classification
		cnidaria, coelenterata, phylum cnidaria, phylum coelenterata hydras; polyps; jellyfishes; sea anemones; corals
		coelenteron the saclike body cavity of a coelenterate
		polyp one of two forms that coelenterates take (e.g. a hydra or coral): usually sedentary with a hollow cylindrical body usually with a ring of tentacles around the mouth; "in some species of coelenterate, polyps are a phase in the life cycle that alternates with a medusoid phase"
		medusan, medusoid, medusa one of two forms that coelenterates take: it is the free-swimming sexual phase in the life cycle of a coelenterate; in this phase it has a gelatinous umbrella-shaped body and tentacles
		jellyfish any of numerous usually marine and free-swimming coelenterates that constitute the sexually reproductive forms of hydrozoans and scyphozoans
		scyphozoan any of various usually free-swimming marine coelenterates having a gelatinous medusoid stage as the dominant phase of its life cycle
		hydroid, hydrozoan colonial coelenterates having the polyp phase dominant