tentacle

noun

ten·​ta·​cle ˈten-ti-kəl 

1

: any of various elongate flexible usually tactile or prehensile processes borne by invertebrate animals chiefly on the head or about the mouth

2

: something that resembles a tentacle especially in or as if in grasping or feeling out

corruption spreading its tentacles

3

: a sensitive hair or emergence on a plant (such as the sundew)

tentacled

ˈten-ti-kəld 

adjective

Examples of tentacle in a Sentence

The corporation's tentacles are felt in every sector of the industry.

the tentacles of organized crime

Recent Examples on the Web

Octopus tentacles have remarkably strong suckers with an adhesion power that could be an asset to soft robots that need to pick things up and hold onto them. —ArsTechnica, 28 June 2025

In the past three years F1 has added Grand Prix races in Miami and Vegas, the latest tentacle of a globalization of sport that has seen the Blackhawks in Prague and the Dodgers in Seoul. —Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 26 June 2025

With the government’s tentacles entwined across the economy—$2.1 trillion in annual regulatory costs is more than the entire nominal federal budget was not so many years ago—there is plenty room for far more streamlining than just reversing Biden-era rules. —Clyde Wayne Crews Jr, Forbes.com, 25 June 2025

Man o’ wars use a balloon-like float to move up and down in the water column, according to NOAA, and their tentacles can grow an average of 30 feet long, with some man o’ wars reaching as long as 100 feet. —Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 20 June 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin tentāculum, from Latin temptāre, tentāre "to feel, test, examine" + -culum, suffix of instrument (going back to Indo-European *-tlom) — more at tempt

Note: The Latin word was used by linnaeus in the second edition (1740) of Systema naturae and may have been coined by him.

First Known Use

circa 1762, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for tentacle

• conventicle
• identical
• denticle

Kids Definition

tentacle

noun

ten·​ta·​cle ˈtent-i-kəl 

1

: any of various long flexible structures that stick out usually around the head or mouth of an animal (as a jellyfish or sea anemone) and are used especially for feeling or grasping

2

a

: something that resembles a tentacle especially in or as if in grasping or feeling out

b

: a sensitive hair on a plant

tentacled

-kəld 

adjective

Medical Definition

tentacle

noun

ten·​ta·​cle ˈtent-i-kəl 

: any of various elongate flexible usually tactile or prehensile processes borne by animals chiefly on the head or about the mouth

especially : one of the threadlike processes bearing nematocysts that hang down from the margin of the umbrella of many jellyfishes