octopi








noun, plural oc·to·pus·es, oc·to·pi [ok-tuh-pahy] /ˈɒk təˌpaɪ/.

  1. any octopod of the genus Octopus, having a soft, oval body and eight sucker-bearing arms, living mostly at the bottom of the sea.
  2. something likened to an octopus, as an organization with many forms of far-reaching influence or control.

noun plural -puses

  1. any cephalopod mollusc of the genera Octopus, Eledone, etc, having a soft oval body with eight long suckered tentacles and occurring at the sea bottom: order Octopoda (octopods)
  2. a powerful influential organization with far-reaching effects, esp harmful ones
  3. another name for spider (def. 8)

n.1758, genus name of a type of eight-armed cephalopod mollusks, from Greek oktopous, literally “eight-footed,” from okto “eight” (see eight) + pous “foot” (see foot (n.)). Proper plural is octopodes, though octopuses probably works better in English. Octopi is from mistaken assumption that -us in this word is the Latin noun ending that takes -i in plural.

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