catadromous

Definitions

  • WordNet 3.6
    • adj catadromous migrating from fresh water to the sea to spawn
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • Catadromous (Bot) Having the lowest inferior segment of a pinna nearer the rachis than the lowest superior one; -- said of a mode of branching in ferns, and opposed to anadromous.
    • Catadromous (Zoöl) Living in fresh water, and going to the sea to spawn; -- opposed to anadromous, and said of the eel.
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • catadromous Running down; descending: applied to certain fishes which descend streams to the sea to spawn: opposed to anadromous.
    • catadromous In botany, having the first set of nerves (in each segment of a fern frond) given off on the basal side of the midrib, as in Osmunda. Compare anadromous .
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • adj Catadromous kat-ad′rom-us of fishes, descending periodically for spawning to the lower parts of a river or to the sea.
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Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Gr. kata` down + dro`mos a running
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Gr. kata, down, dromos, running.

Usage

In literature:

A. anadromous (ascending fresh waters to spawn); B. catadromous (descending to the sea to spawn).
"Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 3" by Various
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Related words