phylum

From Latin phylum, from Ancient Greek φῦλον (phûlon, “tribe, race”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈfaɪləm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Homophone: filum
• Rhymes: -aɪləm

phylum (plural phyla or (nonstandard) phylums)

1. (taxonomy) A rank in the classification of organisms, below kingdom and above class; also called a divisio or a division, especially in describing plants; a taxon at that rank

   Mammals belong to the phylum Chordata.

   • 1995 December 14, Natalie Angier, “Flyspeck on a Lobster Lip Turns Biology on Its Ear”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     While biologists are perpetually finding new species, they can almost always fit the organism into one of the existing taxonomic pigeonholes by which scientists classify life forms. The discovery of an organism so unusual that it needs its own phylum is an extremely rare event.

2. (linguistics) A large division of possibly related languages, or a major language family which is not subordinate to another.

   Synonym: superstock

• phylo-
• phylon

• IPA^(key): /fi.lɔm/

phylum m (plural phylums)

1. (taxonomy) phylum

   Synonym: embranchement

• “phylum”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek φῦλον (phûlon).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpʰyː.ɫũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈfiː.lum]

phȳlum n (genitive phȳlī); second declension

1. (New Latin) phylum

Second-declension noun (neuter).