flatworm

[ flat-wurm ]
/ ˈflætˌwɜrm /

noun

any worm of the phylum Platyhelminthes, having bilateral symmetry and a soft, solid, usually flattened body, including the planarians, tapeworms, and trematodes; platyhelminth.

Origin of flatworm

First recorded in 1895–1900; flat1 + worm

Words nearby flatworm

flatware, flatways, flatwise, flatwoods, flatwork, flatworm, flaubert, flaubert, gustave, flaunch, flaunt, flaunty

Example sentences from the Web for flatworm

  • Such is seen in the life history of the liver fluke, a flatworm which kills sheep, and in the tapeworm.

    A Civic Biology |George William Hunter

  • If a flatworm be cut in two, the front piece grows out a new tail, the hind piece a new head, and two perfect worms result.

    Biology |Edmund Beecher Wilson

  • The parasite that's doing the damage is a flatworm, a trematode called Hepatodirus hominis.

    The Lani People |J. F. Bone

British Dictionary definitions for flatworm

flatworm
/ (ˈflætˌwɜːm) /

noun

any parasitic or free-living invertebrate of the phylum Platyhelminthes, including planarians, flukes, and tapeworms, having a flattened body with no circulatory system and only one opening to the intestine

Medical definitions for flatworm

flatworm
[ flăt′wûrm′ ]

n.

Any of various worms of the phylum Platyhelminthes, including the parasitic tapeworms and flukes, characteristically having a soft, flat, bilaterally symmetrical body and no body cavity. platyhelminth

Scientific definitions for flatworm

flatworm
[ flăt′wûrm′ ]

Any of various parasitic and nonparasitic worms of the phylum Platyhelminthes, characteristically having a soft, flat, bilaterally symmetrical body. Flatworms lack a coelom (body cavity), respiratory system, and circulatory system, but are the most primitive invertebrates to have a brain. The evolutionary history of flatworms is uncertain, but they share some basic characteristics with rotifers, nematodes, and a few other invertebrate phyla. Cestodes (tapeworms), planarians, and trematodes (flukes) are flatworms.