A polyp is a small unhealthy growth on a surface inside your body, especially inside your nose.
It takes ten years or more for a benign polyp to turn malignant.
2. countable noun
A polyp is a small animal that lives in the sea. It has a hollow body like a tube and long parts called tentacles around its mouth.
polyp in British English
(ˈpɒlɪp)
noun
1. zoology
one of the two forms of individual that occur in coelenterates. It usually has a hollow cylindrical body with a ring of tentacles around the mouth
Compare medusa (sense 2)
2. Also called: polypus pathology
a small vascularized growth arising from the surface of a mucous membrane, having a rounded base or a stalklike projection
Derived forms
polypous (ˈpolypous)
adjective
Word origin
C16 polip, from French polype nasal polyp, from Latin pōlypus sea animal, nasal polyp, from Greek polupous having many feet
polyp in American English
(ˈpɑlɪp)
noun
1.
any of various cnidarians, colonial or individual, having a mouth fringed with many small, slender tentacles bearing stinging cells at the top of a tubelike body, as the sea anemone or hydra
2.
a smooth projecting growth of hypertrophied mucous membrane in the nasal passages, bladder, rectum, etc.
Word origin
Fr polype < L polypus < Gr polypous < poly-, poly- + pous, foot