Ten-armed oval-bodied cephalopod with narrow fins as long as the body and a large calcareous internal shell; SYN. cuttle.
Any of a family, Sepiidae, of squidlike cephalopods with an internal calcareous shell (cuttlebone). The common cuttle Sepia officinalis of the Atlantic and Mediterranean is up to 30 cm/1 ft long. It swims actively by means of the fins into which the sides of its oval, flattened body are expanded, and jerks itself backward by shooting a jet of water from its “siphon”.
It is capable of rapid changes of color and pattern. The large head has conspicuous eyes, and the ten arms are provided with suckers. Two arms are very much elongated, and with them the cuttle seizes its prey. It has an ink sac from which a dark fluid can be discharged into the water, distracting predators from the cuttle itself. The dark brown pigment sepia is obtained from the ink sacs of cuttlefish. cuttle-fish + prikaži više

ETYM New Lat. Related to Octopod.
(Irregular plural: octopuses, or: octopi).
1. Bottom-living cephalopod having a soft oval body with eight long tentacles; SYN. devilfish.
2. Tentacles of octopus prepared as food.
Any of an order (Octopoda) of cephalopods, genus Octopus, having a round or oval body and eight arms with rows of suckers on each. They occur in all temperate and tropical seas, where they feed on crabs and other small animals.
Octopuses can vary their coloration according to their background and can swim using their arms as well as by a type of jet propulsion by means of their funnel. They are as intelligent as some vertebrates and not easily stimulated to aggression. Octopuses are shy creatures that release clouds of ink when frightened.
The common octopus o. vulgaris may reach 2 m/6 ft, and the rare, deep-sea giant octopus o. apollyon may span more than 10 m/32 ft. There are a few species of Australian blue-ringed octopods, genus Hapalochlaena; they can kill a human being in 15 minutes as a result of their venomous bite. + prikaži više

1. Widely distributed fast-moving ten-armed cephalopod mollusk having a long tapered body with triangular tail fins.
2. (Italian cookery) Squid prepared as food; SYN. calamari, calamary.
Marine mollusk of the class Cephalopoda. See cephalopod.