Definition of tapeworms Tapeworms

We found 3 definitions of tapeworms from 2 different sources.

What does tapeworms mean?

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Noun Plural: tapeworms
tapeworm - ribbonlike flatworms that are parasitic in the intestines of humans and other vertebrates
		cestode
		flatworm, platyhelminth parasitic or free-living worms having a flattened body
		cestoda, class cestoda tapeworms
		echinococcus tapeworms whose larvae are parasitic in humans and domestic animals

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tapeworm (Noun)
Any parasitical worm of the class Cestoda, which can infest the intestines of both animals and people.
tapeworm (Noun)
A broad fish tapeworm ,.

tapeworm (n.)
Any one of numerous species of cestode worms belonging to Taenia and many allied genera. The body is long, flat, and composed of numerous segments or proglottids varying in shape, those toward the end of the body being much larger and longer than the anterior ones, and containing the fully developed sexual organs. The head is small, destitute of a mouth, but furnished with two or more suckers (which vary greatly in shape in different genera), and sometimes, also, with hooks for adhesion to the walls of the intestines of the animals in which they are parasitic. The larvae (see Cysticercus) live in the flesh of various creatures, and when swallowed by another animal of the right species develop into the mature tapeworm in its intestine. See Illustration in Appendix.

tapeworm
tāp′wurm, n. a term sometimes used as a popular synonym for Cestoda or Cestoid Worms, but especially for those which belong to the families Tæniadæ and Bothriocephalidæ

Tapeworms (often called Cestoda) are a type of flatworm. They are parasitic, which means that they need another larger creature whose body they can live on. Tapeworms live inside the intestines of vertebrate animals (animals that have backbbones). This includes humans. A creature that has a parasite living in or on its body is called the host, because it feeds the parasite. When a vertebrate creature or human has a tapeworm, they lose weight and become weaker.

Tapeworms can be up to 30 or 36 feet (10-12 metres) long. They eat what ever the host eats in. The head of a tapeworm has four suckers and two rings of hooks. The body of a Tapeworms is in segments (pieces that are like each other). Each segment can produce eggs. Little segments of the tapeworm sometimes break off and pass out through the stool of the host, with the eggs. Little segments of its body fall off. They go out of the host body and when they get into another host that segment becomes a tape worm.