mollusc

What it means

1. A soft-bodied invertebrate of the phylum Mollusca, typically with a hard shell of one or more pieces.

   bivalve molluscs

   2 more examples

   For example, the antitumour depsipeptide kahalalide F was isolated from the opisthobranch mollusc Elysia rufescens, and is used by both the mollusc and its dietary alga Bryopsis spp.

   2016 January 21, “Choose Your Weaponry: Selective Storage of a Single Toxic Compound, Latrunculin A, by Closely Related Nudibranch Molluscs”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI

   Searching for hard-shelled prey – molluscs, crabs and the like – there are two species of bear otter in Kanapoi.

   2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherworlds, Penguin, published 2023, page 25

2. figurativelyA weak-willed person.

   Synonyms: little girl, nose of wax, pushover

In a sentence

bivalve molluscs

Where it comes from

1. Latinmolluscus“thin-shelled”
2. New LatinMollusca
3. Frenchmollusque
4. Englishmollusc

Borrowed from French mollusque, from New Latin Mollusca (phylum name), from Latin molluscus (“thin-shelled”), from mollis (“soft”).