having a skeleton made up mainly of cartilage, as any of a class (Chondrichthyes) of fishes (cartilaginous fish), including sharks, rays, and skates
cartilaginous in American English
(ˌkɑːrtlˈædʒənəs)
adjective
1.
of or resembling cartilage
2.
having a skeleton composed either entirely or mainly of cartilage, as vertebrates of the class Chondrichthyes, which includes the sharks, rays, and skates
Word origin
[1375–1425; late ME ‹ L cartilāginōsus, equiv. to cartilāgin- (s. of cartilāgō) cartilage + -ōsus-ous]This word is first recorded in the period 1375–1425. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: gauge, period, representation, screw, skim-ous is a suffix forming adjectives that have the general sense “possessing, full of”a given quality (covetous; glorious; nervous; wondrous); -ous and its variant -ious have often been used to Anglicize Latin adjectives with terminations that cannotbe directly adapted into English (atrocious; contiguous; garrulous; obvious; stupendous). As an adjective-forming suffix of neutral value, it regularly Anglicizes Greekand Latin adjectives derived without suffix from nouns and verbs; many such formationsare productive combining forms in English, sometimes with a corresponding nominalcombining form that has no suffix (as -fer and -ferous; -phore and -phorous; -pter and -pterous; -vore and -vorous)
Examples of 'cartilaginous' in a sentence
cartilaginous
The main body (the purse) is fairly soft and cartilaginous and can easily be chopped into quarters for eating.