centipede

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a predatory arthropod of the class Chilopoda, with a flattened segmented body and one pair of legs on each leg-bearing segment

   A centipede darted beneath the stone when the soil was disturbed.

Through French centipede from Latin centipeda or centipes, formed from centum, 'hundred,' and pes, 'foot.' Despite the name, centipedes do not necessarily have one hundred legs; different species have different odd numbers of leg-bearing segment pairs.

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