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- Dictionaryanimal/ˈanɪml/
noun
- 1. a living organism that feeds on organic matter, typically having specialized sense organs and nervous system and able to respond rapidly to stimuli: "wild animals adapt badly to a caged life"
adjective
- 1. relating to or characteristic of animals: "the evolution of animal life"
- 2. relating to or denoting the pole or extremity of an embryo that contains the more active cytoplasm in the early stages of development.
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a living thing that can move and eat and react to the world through its senses, esp. of sight and hearing: Mammals, insects, reptiles, and birds are all animals. In ordinary use, animal means all living beings except humans: A lion is a wild animal, and a dog is a domestic animal.
Learn the origin, synonyms, and usage of the word animal, which can be a noun or an adjective. An animal is any living thing that can move, breathe, and respond to stimulation, or a human being with a particular interest or aptitude.
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia (/ ˌænɪˈmeɪliə / [ 4 ]). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a hollow sphere of cells, the blastula, during embryonic development.
Learn the scientific and common meanings of animal, as well as its synonyms, origins, and examples. Animal can refer to any multicellular organism with a well-defined shape, movement, and sensory systems, or to a person with a brutish or carnal nature.
- Overview
- The animal kingdom
Animals are multicellular eukaryotes whose cells are bound together by collagen. Animals dominate human conceptions of life on Earth because of their size, diversity, abundance, and mobility. The presence of muscles and mobility is one of the primary characteristics of the animal kingdom.
What are the two major groups of animals?
The two major groups of animals are vertebrates and invertebrates. Vertebrates have backbones, and invertebrates do not.
When did animals first appear?
Animals first appeared in the Ediacaran Period, about 635 million to 541 million years ago, as soft-bodied forms that left traces of their bodies in shallow-water sediments.
What are the basic functional systems of animals?
Animals evolved from unicellular eukaryotes. The presence of a nuclear membrane in eukaryotes permits separation of the two phases of protein synthesis: transcription (copying) of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in the nucleus and translation (decoding) of the message into protein in the cytoplasm. Compared to the structure of the bacterial cell, this ...
Learn the various meanings and uses of the word animal, from a living creature to a brutish person. Compare synonyms, pronunciation, and grammar of animal in British and American English.
Learn the meaning of animal as a noun and an adjective, and see how it relates to other words like beast and brute. Find out the origin, history, and usage of animal in sentences and phrases.
