nudibranch

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a shell-less marine gastropod in the group Nudibranchia, often brightly colored and bearing exposed gills or other respiratory structures

   The brightly colored nudibranch crawled across the reef with its feathery gills exposed.

Borrowed in the nineteenth century from New Latin Nudibranchia, formed from Latin nudus, 'naked,' + branchia, 'gills.' The name refers to the exposed respiratory structures of these shell-less sea slugs.

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