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octopus

Pronunciation: /ˈɒktəpʊs/

The English word “octopus” has 12 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Any of several marine molluscs of the order Octopoda, having no internal or external protective shell or bone (unlike the nautilus, squid and cuttlefish) and eight arms each covered with suckers.
  2. A mollusc from genus Octopus.
  3. The flesh of these marine molluscs eaten as food.
  4. An organization that has many powerful branches controlled from the centre.
  5. An instance of a player scoring a touchdown immediately followed by a successful two-point conversion, resulting in a total score of eight points.
  6. A safety device allowing divers to share an air supply in an emergency.

verb

  1. To put (or attempt to put) one's fingers, hands or arms in many things or places at roughly the same time.
  2. To spread out in long arms or legs in many directions.
  3. To plug a large number of devices into a single electric outlet.
  4. To grow in use vastly beyond what was originally intended.
  5. To hunt and catch octopuses.
  6. To behave like an octopus.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin octōpūs, from Ancient Greek ὀκτώπους (oktṓpous), from ὀκτώ (oktṓ, “eight”) + πούς (poús, “foot”). Piecewise doublet of octopod and octopede.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.