octopus

[ ok-tuh-puhs ]

See synonyms for octopus on Thesaurus.com

noun,plural oc·to·pus·es, oc·to·pi

[ok-tuh-pahy]. /ˈɒk təˌpaɪ/.

any octopod of the genus Octopus, having a soft, oval body and eight sucker-bearing arms, living mostly at the bottom of the sea.
something likened to an octopus, as an organization with many forms of far-reaching influence or control.

Origin of octopus

1750–60; <New Latin <Greek oktṓpous (plural oktṓpodes) eight-footed; see octo-, -pod

Words Nearby octopus

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use octopus in a sentence

Sadly, Paul the octopus did not outlive his impressive but unpopular World Cup predictions by long.
The Amazing Tale of Paul the Psychic Octopus: Germany’s World Cup Soothsayer | Emily Shire | July 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
It's at a time like this that Germans yearn most for Paul the octopus, the great mollusk soothsayer for Germany.
The Amazing Tale of Paul the Psychic Octopus: Germany’s World Cup Soothsayer | Emily Shire | July 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
The Oberhausen aquarium erected a memorial of the psychic octopus with a golden urn containing his ashes.
The Amazing Tale of Paul the Psychic Octopus: Germany’s World Cup Soothsayer | Emily Shire | July 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
octopus is one of those sleazy and boorish Americans whose instincts prove correct.
This 1979 Novel Predicted Putin’s Invasion Of Crimea | Michael Weiss | May 18, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
They are the Tarpon, the Falcon, the Sea Fox, and the octopus.
Read ‘The King in Yellow,’ the ‘True Detective’ Reference That’s the Key to the Show | Robert W. Chambers | February 20, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST

Both Giddiness and the Ice-Maiden seize a man as an octopus seizes all within its reach.
Rudy and Babette | Hans Christian Andersen
But hapless flight: the Boodah is an octopus whose feelers reach far, and they, within her toils, cannot escape her omnipresence.
The Lord of the Sea | M. P. Shiel
From the deeper trawling were obtained a large octopus and several interesting fish.
The Home of the Blizzard | Douglas Mawson
These animals belong to the same division—the Cephalopoda—as the cuttle-fish, the squid, and the octopus.
On the Method of Zadig | Thomas Henry Huxley
A darker, livid hue passed fleetingly over the pallid body of the octopus.
Kings in Exile | Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts

British Dictionary definitions for octopus

octopus

/ (ˈɒktəpəs) /

nounplural -puses

any cephalopod mollusc of the genera Octopus, Eledone, etc, having a soft oval body with eight long suckered tentacles and occurring at the sea bottom: order Octopoda (octopods)
a powerful influential organization with far-reaching effects, esp harmful ones

another name for spider (def. 8)

Origin of octopus

C18: via New Latin from Greek oktōpous having eight feet

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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