bristle worm

noun

variants or less commonly bristleworm

ˈbri-səl-ˌwərm 

plural bristle worms also bristleworms

: any of a class (Polychaeta) of aquatic and chiefly marine annelid worms (such as clam worms or lugworms) that usually possess paired segmental appendages bearing many bristles, that produce free-swimming larvae, and that are often brightly colored or bioluminescent : polychaete

Last week, researchers with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences helped solve the mystery and identified the creatures as polychaete worms. … They are known as "bristle worms" because of their thick bunches of seta that resemble hair …

—Dolan Reynolds

For the past 11,000 years, a species of marine bristle worm has been building reefs. … The worms secrete a mucous tube, then set grains of sand and shell into the mucous, which hardens like mortar.

—Carolyn Fretz

Examples of bristle worm in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Vanadis Worm: A Marvel of Marine Biology Vanadis bristle worms, also known as polychaetes, live on the Italian island of Ponza, just west of Naples. —Paul Smaglik, Discover Magazine, 11 Apr. 2024

Recently, however, in a study published in Nature Communications, researchers in Germany determined the different structures that one such protein in bristle worms takes in darkness and in sunlight. —Elise Cutts, Quanta Magazine, 19 Dec. 2023

The bristle worm hormones that swing in sync with lunar phases have close cousins in humans, Tessmar-Raible said. —Elise Cutts, Quanta Magazine, 19 Dec. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1854, in the meaning defined above