lophophore

noun

loph·​o·​phore ˈlä-fə-ˌfȯr 

: a circular or horseshoe-shaped organ about the mouth especially of a brachiopod or bryozoan that bears tentacles and functions especially in food-getting

Examples of lophophore in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Bryozoans use a unique feeding structure called a lophophore to eat these small creatures. —Laura Baisas Aug 20, Popular Science, 20 Aug. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Greek lóphos "back of the neck, crest of a bird or helmet, summit of a hill" (of uncertain origin) + -o- + -phore

Note: The word was introduced by the Irish-born biologist George James Allman (1812-98) in "Of the Present State of our Knowledge of the Freshwater Polyzoa," Report of the Twentieth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, "held at Edinburgh in July and August 1850" (London, 1851), p. 307: "The sort of disc or stage that surrounds the mouth and bears the tentacula [of a bryozoan], I have called Lophophore [in footnote: Λόφος, φορέω]."

First Known Use

1850, in the meaning defined above