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- DictionaryAn·i·mal/ˈanəm(ə)l/
noun
- 1. a living organism that feeds on organic matter, typically having specialized sense organs and nervous system and able to respond rapidly to stimuli: "wild animals adapt badly to a caged life"
adjective
- 1. relating to or characteristic of animals: "a wide range of animal species"
Learn the origin, synonyms, and usage of the word animal, which can be a noun or an adjective. An animal is any living thing that can move, breathe, and respond to stimulation, or a human being with a particular interest or aptitude.
The word animal comes from the Latin noun animal of the same meaning, which is itself derived from Latin animalis 'having breath or soul'. The biological definition includes all members of the kingdom Animalia. In colloquial usage, the term animal is often used to refer only to nonhuman animals.
This definition includes human beings. Outside of scientific usage, animal is used in several ways. Most commonly, an animal is a living being that meets the above requirements but is not a human being. An animal can be just a mammal, that is, an animal that has fur, gives birth, and produces milk.
Add to word list. a living thing that can move and eat and react to the world through its senses, esp. of sight and hearing: Mammals, insects, reptiles, and birds are all animals. In ordinary use, animal means all living beings except humans: A lion is a wild animal, and a dog is a domestic animal.
- Overview
- The animal kingdom
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Animals are multicellular eukaryotes whose cells are bound together by collagen. Animals dominate human conceptions of life on Earth because of their size, diversity, abundance, and mobility. The presence of muscles and mobility is one of the primary characteristics of the animal kingdom.
What are the two major groups of animals?
The two major groups of animals are vertebrates and invertebrates. Vertebrates have backbones, and invertebrates do not.
When did animals first appear?
Animals first appeared in the Ediacaran Period, about 635 million to 541 million years ago, as soft-bodied forms that left traces of their bodies in shallow-water sediments.
What are the basic functional systems of animals?
Animals evolved from unicellular eukaryotes. The presence of a nuclear membrane in eukaryotes permits separation of the two phases of protein synthesis: transcription (copying) of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in the nucleus and translation (decoding) of the message into protein in the cytoplasm. Compared to the structure of the bacterial cell, this ...
Animal is a kingdom of multicellular eukaryotic organisms that evolved from unicellular eukaryotes. Animals have muscles and mobility, and differ from plants and fungi in morphology and physiology.
Learn the meaning of animal as a noun and an adjective, and see how it is used in different contexts. Find synonyms, related words, and examples from various sources and dictionaries.
animal. / ˈænɪməl / noun. zoology any living organism characterized by voluntary movement, the possession of cells with noncellulose cell walls and specialized sense organs enabling rapid response to stimuli, and the ingestion of complex organic substances such as plants and other animals zoo- any mammal, esp any mammal except man. a brutish person
