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arachnid

noun

any wingless, carnivorous arthropod of the class Arachnida, including spiders, scorpions, mites, ticks, and daddy-longlegs, having a body divided into two parts, the cephalothorax and the abdomen, and having eight appendages and no antennae.Compare insect.

adjective

belonging or pertaining to the arachnids.

noun

any terrestrial chelicerate arthropod of the class Arachnida, characterized by simple eyes and four pairs of legs. The group includes the spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, and harvestmen

“a spider,” 1869, from French arachnide (1806) or Modern Latin Arachnida, introduced as name for this class of arthropods 1815 by French biologist Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet de Lamarck (1744-1829), from Greek arakhne (fem.) “spider; spider’s web,” which probably is cognate with Latin aranea “spider, spider’s web” (borrowed in Old English as renge “spider”), from aracsna. The Latin word could be a Greek borrowing or both could be from a common root. An earlier noun form was arachnidian (1828).

Any of various arthropods of the class Arachnida, such as spiders, scorpions, mites, and ticks. Arthropods are characterized by four pairs of segmented legs and a body that is divided into two regions, the cephalothorax and the abdomen.