flatworm

[ flat-wurm ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

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

flatworm

/ ˈflætˌwɜːm /

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

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.

First recorded in 1895–1900; flat ¹ + worm

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

A certain fresh-water flatworm has the mouth and pharynx in the middle of the body.

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

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.

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