comb jelly

noun

A jelly-like marine animal of the phylum Ctenophora; a ctenophore.

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Meanings

nouncomb jelly (plural comb jellies)

plural comb jellies · alternative comb-jelly · alternative combjelly

  1. A jelly-like marine animal of the phylum Ctenophora; a ctenophore.

    Comb-jellies (Ctenophoræ).

    1870, William Dallas, translation of Ernst Haeckel, “On the Organization of Sponges, and their Relationship to the Corals”, The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, fourth series, volume 5, page 7
    4 more examples

    Ctenophora, the “comb jellies.”

    1907, Buel P. Colton, Zoölogy, Heath, part 1, page 330

    After contacting the surface of a comb jelly, a larva is often moved about by the comb plates and cilia of the host, but eventually it may stick at a comparatively undisturbed spot.

    1976, Sears Crowell, “An Edwardsiid Larva Parasitic in Mnemiopsis”, in Coelenterate Ecology and Behavior, Plenum, →ISBN, page 249

    Have you ever met a comb jelly, or ctenophore?

    2002, Olivia Judson, Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, Metropolitan,, →ISBN, page 56

    Roberts catalogues the other man-made threats to life in the sea: the introduction of alien species by means of ballast water, such as the warty comb jellies that took over the Black Sea [...].

    2012, Charles Clover, ‘Up To Our Necks’, Literary Review, number 399

Synonyms & antonyms

nounbiradially symmetrical hermaphroditic solitary marine animals resembling jellyfishes having for locomotion eight rows of cilia arranged like teeth in a comb

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Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

From their prominent bands of cilia, and their jelly-like texture and resemblance to jellyfish.

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Cite this entry
APA

comb jelly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/comb%20jelly

MLA

“comb jelly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/comb%20jelly. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “comb jelly,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/comb%20jelly.

Source: comb jelly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.