Meanings
- pluralplural onlyMolluscs considered as a group.
The löss fauna is largely of terrestrial mollusca, as in America, […]
1910, Frank Leverett, Comparison of North American and European Glacial Deposits, Berlin: Gebrüder Borntraeger, page 3025 more examples
The mollusca are animals with soft bodies, enveloped in a muscular skin, and usually protected by a univalve or bivalve shell. […] The univalve mollusca are encephalous, or furnished with a distinct head; they have eyes and tentacula, and the mouth is armed with jaws.
1851, S[amuel] P[ickworth] Woodward, “Classes of the Mollusca”, in A Manual of the Mollusca; or, A Rudimentary Treatise of Recent and Fossil Shells, London: John Weale, […], page 6Turning for a very brief space to animals: on the land there are some hermaphrodites, as land-mollusca and earth-worms; but these all pair.
1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Natural Selection”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 100The amphibious animals are provided with special organs for the sense of smell, although a very delicate sense of smell is likewise met with among the crustacea, such as crabs, mollusca and insects.
1862, Arthur Lutze, translated by Charles J[ulius] Hempel, “[Appendix.] The Human Body”, in Manual of Homœopathic Theory and Practice. Designed for the Use of Physicians and Families., New York, N.Y.; Philadelphia, Pa.: […] William Radde, […], page 532Probably frogs, crabs, mollusca, and insects form their chief diet; […]
1886 July, Keswal [pseudonym; W. F. Sinclair], “Notes on the Waters of Western India. Part I.—‘British Deccan and Khandesh.’”, in R[obert] A[rmitage] Sterndale, E[dward] H[amilton] Aitken, editors, The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, volume I, number 3, Bombay: […] [T]he Education Society’s Press […], page 114The gentle slopes are favorable to the growth of various mollusca whose hard parts contribute additional material to the growing limestones.
1940, Frank F[itch] Grout, “[The Sedimentary Rocks] Limestones”, in A Handbook of Rocks for Use Without the Petrographic Microscope, 6th edition, New York, N.Y.: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., […], page 169
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Cite this entry
mollusca. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mollusca
“mollusca.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mollusca. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mollusca,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mollusca.
Source: mollusca on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.