Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A taxonomic category of related organisms constituting a major division of a kingdom.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A prime subdivision of the animal kingdom; a superclass corresponding to the “branches” or “embranchements” of French zoölogists, as Cuvier, who recognized the four subkingdoms of the vertebrates, mollusks, articulates, and radiates.
- noun In botany, a primary division of the vegetable kingdom; the highest class below the kingdom itself.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One of the several primary divisions of either the animal, or vegetable kingdom, as, in zoölogy, the Vertebrata, Tunicata, Mollusca, Articulata, Molluscoidea, Echinodermata, Cœlentera, and the Protozoa; in botany, the Phanerogamia, and the Cryptogamia.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun taxonomy A
taxonomic category belowkingdom and abovesuperphylum .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (biology) a taxonomic group comprising a major division of a kingdom
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Given this remarkable floristic endemism, New Caledonia is often considered a distinct floristic subkingdom.
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Maybe either the king came round on circuit or there was some system of delegates (maybe the thane(s)?) to a bigger kingdom- or subkingdom-sized moot?
Why were folk-moots held outdoors? Carla 2006
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Regards Protozoa as subkingdom and the four great divisions as phyla.
Insects and Diseases A Popular Account of the Way in Which Insects may Spread or Cause some of our Common Diseases Rennie Wilbur Doane
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PROTOZOA, the blastosphere by some rare forms, and the gastrula in the essential structure of the COELENTERATES, -- the subkingdom to which the fresh-water hydra and the corals belong.
The Elements of Geology William Harmon Norton 1900
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This subkingdom comprises at present such familiar forms as the crinoid, the starfish, and the sea urchin.
The Elements of Geology William Harmon Norton 1900
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This subkingdom includes two classes of interest to the geologist, -- the HYDROZOA, such as the fresh-water hydra and the jellyfish, and the CORALS.
The Elements of Geology William Harmon Norton 1900
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All forms of animal life, from the coelenterates to the mammals, follow the same path in their embryological development as far as the gastrula stage, but here their paths widely diverge, those of each subkingdom going their own separate ways.
The Elements of Geology William Harmon Norton 1900
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Although not more than half a dozen out of the million or more species in this subkingdom have thus been brought to the uses of civilization, the forms are interesting not only for what they give, but for the promise of further contributions when this great problem of winning help from the insect world receives adequate consideration.
Domesticated Animals Their Relation to Man and to his Advancement in Civilization Nathaniel Southgate Shaler 1873
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Accepting, then, the type of articulates as founded in nature from the similar modes of development and points of structure perceived between the worms and the crustacea on the one hand, and the worms and insects on the other, have we not a strong genetic bond uniting these three great groups into one grand subkingdom, and can we not in imagination perceive the successive steps by which the Creator, acting through the laws of evolution, has built up the great articulate division of the animal kingdom?
Our Common Insects A Popular Account of the Insects of Our Fields, Forests, Gardens and Houses 1872
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"The communication between individuals is especially characteristic of vertebrates, and in the higher members of that subkingdom it plays
The Jessica Letters: An Editor's Romance Paul Elmer More 1900
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