ˈtentə̇kəl, -tēk- noun
( -s )
Etymology: New Latin tentaculum, from Latin tentare to touch, feel, attempt + -culum, suffix denoting an instrument — more at tempt
1. : any of various elongate flexible simple or branched processes that are usually tactile or prehensile or both in function but sometimes have other functions (as respiration or locomotion) and that are borne by animals chiefly on the head or about the mouth: as
a. : one of the arms of a cephalopod, crinoid, or polyp
b. : one of the fleshy processes sometimes bearing eyes on the head of a gastropod mollusk or many worms — see snail illustration
c. : one of the threadlike processes bearing stinging cells that depend from the margin of the umbrella of many jellyfishes
d. : one of the tubular suctorial processes of a suctorian
e. : one of the numerous small ciliated processes borne on the arms of a brachiopod or the lophophore of a bryozoan
2.
a. : something that acts like a tentacle in grasping or feeling out : feeler , tendril
these tentacles of organized crime and corruption — R.E.Merriam
in every experience we touch the world through some particular tentacle — John Dewey
b. : a sensitive hair or emergence (as one of the gland-tipped insect-catching hairs on the leaves of the sundew)