Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of numerous animals of the phylum Chordata, having at some stage of development a dorsal nerve cord, a notochord, and gill slits and including all vertebrates, the hagfishes, and certain marine animals such as the lancelets and the tunicates.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having the characters of the Chordata; pertaining to or resembling the Chordata: as, a chordate animal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A member of the phylum Chordata; numerous animals having a notochord at some stage of their development; in vertebrates this develops into the spine
  • adjective Of such animals.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any animal of the phylum Chordata having a notochord or spinal column
  • adjective of or relating to or characteristic of the Chordata

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From New Latin Chordāta, phylum name, from Latin chorda, cord; see cord.]

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Examples

  • In contrast, a region deep in the brain associated with reward processing, attention and motor movements - the chordate nucleus - was enlarged in subjects who were addicted to the drug.

    Cocaine addiction linked to brain abnormalities 2011

  • And yes the point is the soldier is part of the Army, Corps, Division, etc just as a human is an animal, chordate, etc.

    A Disclaimer for Behe? 2009

  • It's just one of the many peculiarities of being a chordate on Sol's 3rd rock.

    Contentment 2009

  • In contrast, a region deep in the brain associated with reward processing, attention and motor movements - the chordate nucleus - was enlarged in subjects who were addicted to the drug.

    Cocaine addiction linked to brain abnormalities 2011

  • A data dump now about problems with metazoan (or chordate or mammalian) phylogeny would be getting ahead of the discussion.

    A Disclaimer for Behe? 2009

  • A data dump now about problems with metazoan (or chordate or mammalian) phylogeny would be getting ahead of the discussion.

    A Disclaimer for Behe? 2009

  • Amphioxus is a primitive chordate, more primitive than lampreys, that clot their haemolymph.

    The Panda's Thumb: Ian Musgrave Archives 2010

  • Amphioxus is a primitive chordate, more primitive than lampreys, that clot their haemolymph.

    The Panda's Thumb: Irreducible Complexity Archives 2010

  • The change in the albedo of the world as dark plants spread and white clouds rained themselves away brought more and more habitats into use, and before long the chordate fauna of Earth was once again upon a pristine world, humanless and safer here on Garden than for the last ten thousand years on its world of origin.

    Pathfinder Orson Scott Card 2010

  • Most members of the chordate phylum, those in the subphylum Vertebrata, replace the notochord with vertebrae (the backbone) later in development to support the pelvic and pectoral girdles (to which the front and hind limbs are attached) and to protect the spinal cord.

    Haeckel had a point - The Panda's Thumb 2010

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