Meanings
plural plant-animals
- archaicAn organism having characteristics of both plants and animals; a zoophyte, later chiefly an animal with structural resemblances to a plant.First known use 17th c.
From which Description, they [sponges] seem to be a kind of Plant-Animal that adheres to a Rock […].
1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section XXII2 more examples
She had on her slide some special stuff come up from London that day […] she focussed the light on her field, and saw the plant-animal lying shadowy in a boundless light […].
1915, DH Lawrence, The Rainbow, Vintage, published 2011, page 408There are some three hundred more of such plant-animals and collectively they represent a group called the Flagellates, which is neither plant nor animal, but intermediate.
1941, Richard Headstrom, Adventures with a Microscope
Origin
- Ancient Greekζωόφυτον“zoophyte”
- New Latinplantanimal
- Frenchplant-animal
- Englishplant-animal
From plant + animal, after French plant-animal (obsolete), from New Latin plantanimal (16th c.), after Hellenistic Ancient Greek ζωόφυτον (zōóphuton, “zoophyte”).
More words from French, New Latin, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
plant-animal. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/plant-animal
“plant-animal.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/plant-animal. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “plant-animal,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/plant-animal.
Source: plant-animal on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.