animal

Dictionary

an·i·mal (ăan'ə?-mə?l)
n.

• A multicellular organism of the kingdom Animalia, differing from plants in certain typical characteristics such as capacity for locomotion, nonphotosynthetic metabolism, pronounced response to stimuli, restricted growth, and fixed bodily structure.
• An animal organism other than a human, especially a mammal.
• A person who behaves in a bestial or brutish manner.
• A human considered with respect to his or her physical, as opposed to spiritual, nature.
• A person having a specified aptitude or set of interests: “that rarest of musical animals, an instrumentalist who is as comfortable on a podium with a stick as he is playing his instrument” (Lon Tuck).

• Relating to, characteristic of, or derived from an animal or animals: animal fat.
• Relating to the physical as distinct from the spiritual nature of people: animal instincts and desires.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2004, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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Thesaurus

animal

adjective

• Relating to the desires and appetites of the body: carnal, fleshly, physical, sensual. See body/spirit.

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Encyclopedia

animal, any member of the animal kingdom (kingdom Animalia), as distinguished from organisms of the plant kingdom (kingdom Plantae) and the kingdoms Fungi, Protista, and Monera in the five-kingdom system of classification. (Another classification system, suggested by genetic sequencing studies, places animals with plants and some other forms in a larger taxonomic unit called the eukarya to distinguish them from the prokaryotic bacteria and archaea, or ancient bacteria.)

Essentially, animals are many-celled heterotrophic organisms. Plants and algae characteristically manufacture their food from inorganic substances (usually by photosynthesis); animals must secure food already organized into organic substances. They are dependent upon photosynthetic organisms, which provide oxygen as a byproduct and are the ultimate source of all their food. Animals (as well as plants) provide carbon dioxide through respiration and the decomposition of their dead bodies (see carbon cycle; nitrogen cycle). In addition, most animals have specialized means of locomotion, generally involving muscle cells, and possess nervous systems and sense organs—all adaptations for securing food. In most forms there is a distinct alimentary canal or digestive system. Animal cells do not have cell walls. Almost all animals, unlike most plants, possess a limited scheme of growth; that is, the adults of a given species are nearly identical in their characteristic form and are similar in maximum size. Most animals reproduce sexually, but some are capable of asexual reproduction under certain circumstances.

With the advent of electron microscopy and advanced biochemical analyses, intricate differences between simple and microscopic organisms were better understood, and many that were previously fit into the animal or plant kingdom were then placed into separate kingdoms (i.e., Monera for the bacteria, Protista for the algae and protozoans, and so forth). In zoological classification the animal kingdom has been divided into the three subkingdoms of Parazoa (the sponges), Mezozoa (wormlike parasites), and Eumetazoa. Eumetazoa comprises numerous invertebrate phyla and the phylum Chordata. The chordates include two primitive subphyla of a few species each and the subphylum Vertebrata (see vertebrate). There are at least 1.5 million animal species; approximately 95% of these are invertebrates.

The scientific study of animals is called zoology; the study of their relation to their environment and of their distribution is animal ecology. For specific approaches to the study of living things, see biology.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/

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Medical

an·i·mal (ăan'ə?-mə?l)
n.

• A multicellular organism with membranous cell walls of the kingdom Animalia, differing from plants in certain typical characteristics such as capacity for locomotion, nonphotosynthetic metabolism, pronounced response to stimuli, restricted growth, and fixed bodily structure.
• An animal organism other than a human, especially a mammal.
• A human considered with respect to his or her physical, as opposed to spiritual, nature.

• Relating to, characteristic of, or derived from an animal or animals.
• Relating to the physical as distinct from the spiritual nature of humans.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Directory > Medical > Medical Dictionary > animal

WordNet

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun animal has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a living organism characterized by voluntary movement
Synonyms: animate being, beast, brute, creature, fauna

The adjective animal has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: of the appetites and passions of the body
Synonyms: carnal, fleshly, sensual

Meaning #2: of the nature of or characteristic of or derived from an animal or animals
Antonyms: vegetable (meaning #1), mineral (meaning #2)

WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

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stuffed animal

A homemade stuffed animal of a ducksheep.

A stuffed animal describes a toy animal stuffed with straw, beans, cotton, and other similar materials. Some stuffed animals are very old - home made cloth dolls stuffed with straw go back to at least the 1830s, perhaps much older.

Stuffed animals in the past were frequently produced by stuffing the evacuated skins of hunted animals. However, with modern technology it is now possible to produce them with synthetic materials. For this reason, a plush toy or plushie may be a more appropriate name for a modern synthetic stuffed animal.

The first commercial concern to create stuffed toys is apparently the Steiff company that was founded in 1880 in Germany. In some parts of Germany, stuffed animals are informally referred to in German as Steiftiere, which derives from the name of that company; however, this is largely unknown to casual German speakers today because steif also means stiff, which is also why the word lost the second f.

One of the most popular types of stuffed animal is the teddy bear. Another is the sock monkey.

A popular commercial brand of stuffed animals is Ty Beanie Babies.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Stuffed animal".

Directory > General Reference > Wikipedia > animal

Translations

Translations for: Animal

Nederlands (Dutch)
dier, beest, soort/ ding, dierlijk, vleselijk

Français (French)
animal, bête

Deutsch (German)
n. - Tier
adj. - tierisch, animalisch, körperlich, Tier-

Ε?λ?λ?η?ν?ι?κ?ή? (Greek)
n. ζ?ώ?ο?, τtεeτtρ?ά?πpο?δdο?, κ?τtή?ν?ο?ς?, γ?ο?μά?ρ?ι? adj. ζ?ω?ι?κ?ό?ς?, ζ?ω?ώ?δdη?ς?

Italiano (Italian)
animale, bestia

Português (Portuguese)
n. - animal (m), bicho (m), besta (f)
adj. - animal, brutamontes (fig.), sensual, carnal

Р?у?с?с?к?и?й? (Russian)
ж?и?в?о?т?н?о?е?, ж?е?с?т?о?к?и?й?, г?р?у?б?ы?й? ч?е?л?о?в?е?к?, е?с?т?е?с?т?в?е?н?н?ы?й?, б?и?о?л?о?г?и?ч?е?с?к?и?й?

Español (Spanish)
n. - animal
adj. - animal, bruto, de los animales

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - djur, levande varelse
adj. - animalisk, djur-

中?国?琣? (Simplified Chinese)
n. - 动?物?, 牲?畜?, 兽?, 畜?牲?緔?的?人?
adj. - 动?物?的?, 罷?体?的?, 兽?类?的?, 罷?欲?的?
 

中?國?疏? (Traditional Chinese)
n. - 動?物?, 牲?畜?, 獸?, 畜?牲?緔?的?人?
adj. - 動?物?的?, 罷?攬?的?, 獸?枢?的?, 罷?欲?的?
 

日?本?畢? (Japanese)
n. - 動?物?, け?だ?も?の?, 問?枴?
adj. - 動?物?の?, 動?物?性?の?
 

ا?ل?ع?ر?ب?ي?ه? (Arabic)
‏?(ا?ل?ا?س?م?) ح?ي?و?ا?ن? (ص?ف?ه?) ب?ه?ي?ك?ي?, ج?س?د?ي?, ش?ه?و?ا?ن?ي?‏?

ע?ב?ר?י?ת?‬? (Hebrew)
n. - ‮?ב?ע?ל?-ח?י?י?ם?, ח?י?ה?‬?
adj. - ‮?ח?י?י?ת?י?, ב?ש?ר?י?, ג?ש?מ?י?‬?

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