Animalian.
/ˌanᵻˈmeɪlɪə/, U.S. /ˌænəˈmeɪljə/, /ˌænəˈmeɪliə/ Biology.
With singular or plural agreement. The kingdom of living organisms that comprises the animals, now usually including only metazoans but formerly also including protozoans. Animalia formed one of three kingdoms of natural objects (the others being plants and minerals) in Linnaeus' classification. The number of kingdoms recognized later rose to five (excluding minerals), and there are more than twenty in some modern schemes. This taxon, if used at all, is now generally restricted by zoologists to heterotrophic, diploid, multicellular forms.
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1781 R. Pulteney Gen. View Writings Linnæus 310 Under the term Animalia Composita are comprehended the two last orders of the class of Vermes.]
1803 Parents' Friend II. xxi. 276 The mastiff..is one of the several varieties..whose specific or christian name is familiaris, or the domestic dog, of the family or genus canis,..in the province or class mammalia..in the kingdom animalia.
1825 W. S. Macleay Annulosa Javanica 5 We..descend from the consideration of the kingdom Animalia to the department or sub-kingdom Annulosa.
1863 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 114 There is no difference radically, or in the lowest form of organization in the two kingdoms Animalia and Vegetabilia, as almost universally supposed to be constituted.
1938 Q. Rev. Biol. 13 412/2 An account of the characters and limits of Plantae and Animalia will complete the characterization and limitation of Protista.
1977 T. I. Storer et al. Elements Zool. (ed. 4) i. 6/2 Scientists now classify organisms into either 4 or 5 kingdoms: Animalia (animals), Plantae (plants), Fungi (fungi and slime moulds), Protista, and Monera.
2002 D. M. Warren Small Animal Care & Managem. (ed. 2) i. 7/2 Animalia is composed of the invertebrates and vertebrates.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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